Obama seeks $1 billion for cancer ‘moonshot’ over two years

During his final State of the Union address, President Obama detailed a “moonshot” goal of curing cancer. He also put Vice President Joe Bidden in charge of the task force. It looks like the president is getting right to work fighting the disease as NBC News reports he plans to ask Congress for $1 billion over the next two years. More specifically, President Obama’s proposal looks to spend $195 million this year and another $755 million during the 2017 fiscal year.

The $1 billion is only meant to “jumpstart” research that’s already going on, and Biden said in a blog post it will ensure that work gets “the funding that it needs.” Today, Biden’s Cancer Moonshot Task Force met for the first time and the initiative’s long-term goal is to cram 10 years worth of research into the next five years.

While the National Institutes of Health will get most of the funding for medical research, the plan also sets aside portions for the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Specific areas of focus for the program include early detection, vaccine development, genomic analysis and more. Those solutions will take time to develop, but the first step will be to get more patients in clinical trials testing a range of treatment options.

Source: NBC News, White House