‘Cancer moonshot’ launch prep under way
Blueprint of recommendations expected in June
By Laura Beil
When President Barack Obama called for a “cancer moonshot” during his State of the Union address, the idea was big on vision and low on specifics. The goal, he said, was to make America “the country that cures cancer once and for all.” Now, details are trickling out, but a true plan for launch won’t be ready until June.
In February, the White House released a list of cancer research areas to target. Many of those, such as therapeutic vaccines and cancer genomics, are already the subject of intense research. The administration also announced that the “moonshot initiative will begin immediately with $195 million in new cancer activities at the National Institutes of Health” this year. Not all of that money is moonshot money, though.