×
Newsmax TV & Webwww.newsmax.comFREE - In Google Play
VIEW
×
Newsmax TV & Webwww.newsmax.comFREE - On the App Store
VIEW
Skip to main content
Tags: Biden | Cancer | Summit | Research

Biden Hosting Cancer Summit to Try to Accelerate Research

Biden Hosting Cancer Summit to Try to Accelerate Research
(Getty Images)

Wednesday, 29 June 2016 07:30 AM EDT

Vice President Joe Biden will try to give efforts to cure cancer a jolt during a summit in Washington that's casting a spotlight on research and innovative trials taking place across the country.

Scientists, oncologists, donors and patients planned to gather Wednesday at Howard University for the daylong event, with thousands more participating at related events across the country, the White House said. Comedian Carol Burnett, whose daughter died of cancer, was to introduce Biden and stay to emcee the summit.

For Biden, the conference comes as time is running out to make good on his pledge to double the rate of progress toward a cure before leaving office. After his son, former Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, died of brain cancer last year, the elder Biden announced he wouldn't run for president but would spend his remaining months in office on a cancer "moonshot."

Yet while Biden had hoped to dramatically boost government activity on cancer, his campaign has run up against the same political and bureaucratic hurdles that have challenged other White House priorities.

To fund Biden's effort, President Barack Obama asked Congress for $1 billion over two budget years for research. Only a fraction has been approved.

To that end, Biden has sought to use the time he has to highlight private and nonprofit research efforts, while lobbying the country's leading cancer institutions to collaborate more and better use their resources. Greg Simon, the head of Biden's "moonshot," said the government's role is to harness "the power of the people of the country by focusing them on particular problems."

To illustrate what's on the cutting edge for cancer, the Energy Department and the National Cancer Institute planned to announce new programs to analyze cancer data with supercomputers, plus another computing program teaming up with drug maker GlaxoSmithKline to speed up drug development.

IBM was to unveil plans to donate its Watson supercomputing technology to help Veterans Affairs ramp up its precision medicine program by sequencing the genomics of tumors for 10,000 patients over two years.

"Those are the types of partnerships that really start to push things forward," IBM Watson Health Vice President Steve Harvey said in an interview. "We kind of need each other in this journey."

© Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


US
Vice President Joe Biden will try to give efforts to cure cancer a jolt during a summit in Washington that's casting a spotlight on research and innovative trials taking place across the country.
Biden, Cancer, Summit, Research
371
2016-30-29
Wednesday, 29 June 2016 07:30 AM
Newsmax Media, Inc.

Sign up for Newsmax’s Daily Newsletter

Receive breaking news and original analysis - sent right to your inbox.

(Optional for Local News)
Privacy: We never share your email address.
Join the Newsmax Community
Read and Post Comments
Please review Community Guidelines before posting a comment.
 
TOP

Newsmax, Moneynews, Newsmax Health, and Independent. American. are registered trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc. Newsmax TV, and Newsmax World are trademarks of Newsmax Media, Inc.

NEWSMAX.COM
America's News Page
© Newsmax Media, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Download the NewsmaxTV App
Get the NewsmaxTV App for iOS Get the NewsmaxTV App for Android Scan QR code to get the NewsmaxTV App
NEWSMAX.COM
America's News Page
© Newsmax Media, Inc.
All Rights Reserved