Biden’s Moon Shot: End Cancer as We Know It
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy demanded that science bend to humankind's aspirations. Before a joint session of Congress, JFK insisted that by the end of the decade the United States would land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth. Soon after at Rice University, JFK declared, "the United States was not built by those who waited and rested and wished to look behind them. This country was conquered by those who moved forward.”
In a defiant declaration challenging the politics and science of the day, Kennedy affirmed, “We choose to go to the Moon.” In his way, President Joe Biden is challenging the science, tech, and healthcare communities to reach for its own ‘Moon Shot’ in finding a cure for cancer under his watch.
Earlier this month, President Biden hosted a bipartisan group of legislators at the White House where he called for “an end to cancer.” The President talked about how “we are on the cusp of some real breakthroughs on cancer.” Indeed, on the campaign trail, candidate Biden made the audacious claim that “we’re going to cure cancer” if he was elected President.
Joe Biden is calling for America’s healthcare and research companies to – once again – bend science to our will. We’ve done it before – the 1969 Moon landing and the most recent success to bring a COVID-19 vaccine to market. What usually takes up to ten years, America’s innovative bio-pharmaceutical companies accomplished – the design, testing, and delivery of a new vaccine – in less than ten months. Nothing short of remarkable – miraculous really – in the history of science and medicine.
Can we do it with cancer?
In September 2020, Illumina, a leader in personalized medicine and genetic research, announced that it had acquired GRAIL, a healthcare company exclusively focused on multi-cancer detection, launching a new era in the war on cancer.
On finding a cure for cancer, the future is now.
“Cancer is one of society’s most significant challenges, with most cancer being detected too late,” said Hans Bishop, Chief Executive Officer of GRAIL. “We believe multi-cancer early detection technology could address a tremendous unmet need and reduce the cancer burden worldwide. Combining forces with Illumina enables broader and faster adoption of GRAIL’s innovative, multi-cancer early detection blood test, enhancing patient access ….” Bishop went on to say that this merger will help bring about the “next step in our journey to transform cancer detection and outcomes ….”
With the COVID-19 vaccine, the unprecedented medical miracle would have been impossible without a robust private sector – the pioneering life sciences, research, healthcare, and bio-pharmaceutical companies. For science and medicine, 2020 has taught us that fighting pandemics and protecting the future of medical progress both hinge on American leadership and innovation in the healthcare sector.
Bureaucratic roadblocks and unnecessary government interference threaten medical progress and put our medical future in jeopardy. We would be defenseless in combating the next pandemic, treating the disease that is still unknown, or curing cancer without America’s innovative healthcare companies.
21st Century medicine depends on mergers, modernization, partnerships, and a robust, active private healthcare sector. An ethos of ‘the right treatment at the right time for the right patient at the right cost’ must instruct government policy and private sector action on medical progress.
Operation Warp Speed was a medical triumph and was the government’s best pandemic decision. It was a decision to ‘get out of the way’ of science and innovation.
Ultimately, Illumina’s acquisition of GRAIL must be approved by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Let’s hope – for the sake of medical progress – that the FTC puts patients over politics. These are the sort of private sector actions that will bring us closer to President Biden’s call “to end cancer as we know it.” Just like with Operation Warp Speed, the government’s best decision here is for the FTC to get out of the way.
Jerry Rogers is the editor of RealClearHealth and the host of the 'Jerry Rogers Show' on WBAL NewsRadio. Follow him on Twitter @JerryRogersShow.
