Biden to tout next steps on 'Cancer Moonshot' in speech at JFK library
Biden will announce steps to expand on his "Cancer Moonshot" initiative to prevent deaths from the disease in remarks at the John F. Kennedy library in Boston.
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will announce new steps to expand on his administration's "Cancer Moonshot" initiative to prevent deaths from the disease in a speech Monday afternoon at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.
In his remarks, which come on the 60th anniversary of Kennedy's speech on his goal of putting a man on the moon, Biden will announce he's naming longtime science adviser Renee Wegrzyn as the inaugural director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, which he created in March. The agency's mission is to improve the federal government's ability to foster health and biomedical research.
President Joe Biden speaks in the East Room of the White House on Sept. 7.Mandel Ngan / AFP - Getty Images"Under Dr. Wegrzyn’s leadership, ARPA-H will support programs and projects that undertake challenges ranging from the molecular to the societal, with the potential to transform entire areas of medicine and health in order to prevent, detect, and treat some of the most complex diseases such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and cancer, providing benefits for all Americans," the White House said.
Biden also signed an executive order Monday that aims to boost biotechnology and biomanufacturing to ensure that cutting-edge technologies like those needed to fight cancer will be developed and made in the U.S., the White House said.
In the afternoon, the president is expected to highlight progress made by the "Cancer Cabinet" advisory group he formed earlier this year, including actions to close the screening gap, address environmental exposure, decrease the impact of preventable cancers and bring the latest research to patients and communities. The cabinet, for example, is announcing that the health care and climate legislation Biden signed last month will reduce the cost of prescription drugs for cancer patients.
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