SAN FRANCISCO — Vice President Joe Biden said Monday he’ll continue his work to organize cancer research once he leaves office this month by heading a new project that could be called the Biden Cancer Initiative.
Biden said in a conference here Monday that the program will have a goal similar to the one he’s spearheaded as vice president, called the cancer “moonshot,” which aims to complete a decade’s worth of cancer research in five years.
“When I started this effort, I said I would continue it long after my time in office,” Biden said at the JPMorgan Healthcare Investor Conference.
Biden said his project will focus on improving how doctors and patients transmit data, working with community health organizations to equalize access to care and communicate with drug makers and insurers about making treatments affordable for patients.
Top healthcare experts have asked Biden to focus his post-administration energies on cancer, and they’ve promised to help out, the vice president said.
“To my great pleasure, many of the leaders in the field from the private sector, top researchers and oncologists, others, have asked me to continue to devote myself to this mission — and said they will join me in this fight,” Biden said.
Biden said he’s also spoken with his successor, Vice President-elect Mike Pence, about continuing the effort.
“It is my hope that the new administration will continue this work,” Biden said. “I stand ready to help.”
Congress appropriated $1.8 billion in new funding for cancer research as part of a medical cures bill in December. Biden has been a leading advocate for new research investments, after losing his son Beau to brain cancer in May 2015.
