Transcript - Remarks: Joe Biden Discusses the Cancer Moonshot Initiative in Boston - September 12, 2022 | Factba.se

Joe Biden

00:00:00 - 00:00:45 ()

Thank you, Madam Ambassador. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Ambassador, Caroline, thank you for that introduction and for your enduring friendship. I was talking earlier about how your family at a very difficult time in my life when I first got to the Senate as a 29 year old kid, before I was sworn in, I lost my wife and my daughter and my two boys were so badly injured when struck by a tractor trailer.

Joe Biden

00:00:45 - 00:01:11 ()

And your family was there for me. And I really mean it. Your family was there for me. You may remember some of it, and I'll never forget it. They got me and my boys through an awful lot. I'm truly honored to be with you all this -- and your incredible family. And Jack, I believe your -- your generation is the best educated, most talented generation in our history, and that's the reason I'm so optimistic about the future.

Joe Biden

00:01:11 - 00:01:58 ()

And that's not hyperbole, I mean it. You know, Sheetal thank you for sharing your powerful story. And thank you Mayor Wu for the passport in this great city. And thank you to Health and -- Health and Human Services Secretary Becerra and Boston's own Marty Walsh. Marty. Thank you to the members of the Massachusetts delegation from the House Representatives Pressley, Lynch, Keating, and Jack -- Jake, I should say Auchincloss and -- and Lori thank you as well for being here.

Joe Biden

00:01:58 - 00:02:24 ()

You have beautiful daughters, are great kids. And I want to thank all of you, the cancer patients, survivors, caregivers, and don't jump from up there, okay? I want and all -- for all the leaders of science and medicine for being here today. This is a powerful place of reflection and remembrance. On this day in 1962, America was facing an inflection point.

Joe Biden

00:02:24 - 00:02:59 ()

One of those times that changes everything from the day before to the day after. The shadow of world wars cast over a Cold War, the march on Civil Rights urgent yet uncertain. And against all of that and more, America faced the choice to move forward or to move backwards to build the future or obsess about the past to be a nation of unity and hope and optimism or a nation of division, violence, and hatred.

Joe Biden

00:02:59 - 00:03:24 ()

At this inflection point, President Kennedy made a choice for the nation, thank God. On this day in 1962 at Rice University in Houston, he spoke about America's possibilities. I was asked by Xi Jinping, and I met with more than any other world leader in the Tibetan plateau, and he turned to me and he said, can you define America for me?

Joe Biden

00:03:24 - 00:04:13 ()

And I said yes. And I was sincere. I said one word, possibilities. In America, we believe anything is possible. I mean it. And in choosing to go to the moon, President Kennedy said America was doing so, quote, not because it was easy, but because it was hard. Because the goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we're willing--not one we are unwilling to postpone and one which we intend to win.

Joe Biden

00:04:13 - 00:04:41 ()

Unwilling to postpone. President Kennedy, unwilling to postpone. President Kennedy set a goal to win the space race against Russia and advance science and technology for all of humanity. And when he set that goal, he established a national purpose that could rally the American people in a common cause. And he succeeded.

Joe Biden

00:04:41 - 00:05:27 ()

Now in our time, on the 60th anniversary of his clarion call, we face another inflection point. And together, we can choose to move forward with unity, hope and optimism. And I believe we can usher in the same unwillingness to postpone, the same national purpose that will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills to end cancer as we know it and even cure cancers once and for all.

Joe Biden

00:05:27 - 00:05:54 ()

I give you my word as a Biden, this cancer moonshot is one of the reasons why I ran for President. It's part of my unity agenda that I laid out in my State of the Union address, to rally the American people to work together because we know this, cancer does not discriminate red and blue. It doesn't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat.

Joe Biden

00:05:54 - 00:06:28 ()

Beating cancer is something we can do together, and that's why I'm here today. We've made enormous progress in the past 50 years since President Nixon signed the National Cancer Act to declare a war on cancer. We learned cancer is not a single disease, but there are over 200 different types of cancers caused by different genetic mutations in our cells.

Joe Biden

00:06:28 - 00:06:58 ()

We discovered new medicines, therapies, early detection and prevention measures to extend and to save lives. In the first 25 years since the National Cancer Act, the death rate from cancer largely remained unchanged. Then things began to change. With progress over the last 25 years, the death rate from cancer has fallen more than 25 percent.

Joe Biden

00:06:58 - 00:07:31 ()

But despite the progress of lives extended, lives saved, cancer is still the number two cause of death in America, second only to heart disease. For too many cancer patients and their families, instead of hope there's bewilderment, the feeling of being on your own. Frustration as hospitals said doctors can't easily share your medical records with other hospitals and doctors to help find answers even when every minute counts.

Joe Biden

00:07:31 - 00:08:06 ()

Having to advocate for even the most basic care and attention for your loved ones. The flood of information is a completely different language with few people help and available to help you decipher it. Having therapy that could work within reach but it's too expensive or insurance won't cover it. And so when President Obama asked me to launch a cancer moonshot, our goal was to bring an added urgency, a new urgency to the fight.

Joe Biden

00:08:06 - 00:08:32 ()

And in my view, not unlike President Kennedy did, we harness federal resources to change the culture, increase cooperation and break down the silos that exist. That included everything from making published results of federally funded cancer research more available to any patient, to any doctor, for free, instead of the firewall that had been set up.

Joe Biden

00:08:32 - 00:08:59 ()

That included recognition for many cancer patients. It's hard to even know if there's a clinical trial that can help them, let alone how to enroll in one. So we launched trials.cancer.gov so everyone can find a clinical trial near them or across the country and the world, and they can gain access to these trials.

Joe Biden

00:08:59 - 00:09:21 ()

I've traveled the country, brought together leaders in health care, technology, education, business, philanthropy. I visited many of the major cancer research centers in the world. And nowhere, no matter where I was or what the topic at hand, world leaders wanted to talk to me about our cancer moonshot. That's not hyperbole.

Joe Biden

00:09:21 - 00:09:53 ()

That's a fact. For example, Pope Francis convened a major international conference on cell therapies at the Vatican and invited me to speak about our mission. And one of the final pieces of legislation President Obama signed into law was the Bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act. It streamlined the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, by creating oncology center of excellence so new cancer treatments can be evaluated faster.

Joe Biden

00:09:53 - 00:10:25 ()

It provided seven years of new funding, including research on cancer therapies and the disparities, trial networks to discover new drugs and new efforts in childhood cancer. As President of the United States Senate, I presided over the overwhelming bipartisan vote and watched my friend Mitch McConnell name the cancer provisions in that bill after my son, Beau, who had lost his life to that disease just months earlier.

Joe Biden

00:10:25 - 00:10:53 ()

And when we left office, Jill and I knew we had to keep going through, keep it up, so we initiated the Biden Cancer Initiative. We focused on turning the moonshot into a movement. Not just a shot, a movement to create a cancer research and care system that most people think we already have. But they don't realize until they find they have cancer that we don't, but one that we deserve.

Joe Biden

00:10:53 - 00:11:21 ()

And everywhere we'd go, people would share their stories, literally in grocery stores, airports, rope lines. While heard stories of loss and despair, the stories began to change to a feeling of real hope. Not because of me or Jill, but because of all of you and so many of you at home, doctors, researchers, advocates, caregivers, patients, survivors.

Joe Biden

00:11:21 - 00:12:00 ()

And that's when I was elected President, I determined to supercharge the cancer moonshot as a central effort in the Biden-Harris administration. In February, I laid out our plan. It is bold, ambitious and I might add, completely doable. The goal is to cut cancer death rates by at least 50 percent, at least 50 percent, in the next 25 years, to turn more cancers from death sentences into chronic diseases people can live with, to create more supportive experience for patients and families.

Joe Biden

00:12:00 - 00:12:26 ()

And to update, to update our fight against the cancer. It's a disease we often diagnose too late and have too few ways to prevent it in the first place. Where there are stark inequities based on race, disability, zip code, sexual orientation, gender identity and other factors, we know too little about why treatments work for some patients.

Joe Biden

00:12:26 - 00:12:48 ()

But the same patient--different patient with the same disease, it doesn't work for. We still lack strategies for developing treatments for some cancers, like childhood cancers. We don't do enough to help patients and families navigate the cancer care system. We don't learn enough from their experience as patients.

Joe Biden

00:12:48 - 00:13:20 ()

We don't share enough data and knowledge to bring the urgency we need to finding new answers. But for each, for each of the ways we -- for example, to prevent cancers, scientists are exploring whether mrRNA vaccine technology that brought us safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines could be used to stop cancer cells when they first arise.

Joe Biden

00:13:20 - 00:13:56 ()

To target the right treatments, we're learning more about how to use genetics, immune response, and other factors to tell which combinations of treatments are likely to work best for each individual. To address inequities, we can ensure prevention, detection, treatment, reach patients in urban, rural, suburban, and tribal communities, so they have equal access to cancer diagnostics, therapeutics, and clinical trials.

Joe Biden

00:13:56 - 00:14:28 ()

As part of the Supercharge Moonshot, I'll use my authorities as President to increase funding, to break logjam -- break logjams, and to speed breakthroughs. I've also formed a new cancer cabinet as driving a whole of government effort to unleash every possible asset within our power. From NASA, that knows more about radiation than any doctor does, to the Defense Department, that has the ability to calculate and the Energy Department do a million billion calculations per second.

Joe Biden

00:14:28 - 00:14:54 ()

Health and Human Services Secretary Becerra plays a key role in the cancer cabinet, as does Marty Walsh, a childhood cancer survivor who is committed to helping Americans get time off for cancer screenings or care for a loved one. White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is changing the path of the -- for the Cancer Moonshot for 2022 and beyond.

Joe Biden

00:14:54 - 00:15:26 ()

And today, I'm setting a long term goal for the Cancer Moonshot to rally America and ingenuity that we can engage like we did to reach the moon that actually cures cancers, not all cancer -- cancers -- cures for cancers, once and for all. And a critical way to do that is that going through what I call ARPA-H, Advanced Research Projects Agencies for Health.

Joe Biden

00:15:26 - 00:15:54 ()

It's based on DARPA, the Defense Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency, that has helped lead to breakthroughs in technologies to protect our national security like the Internet, GPS, and so much more. ARPA-H will have a singular purpose, to drive breakthroughs to prevent, detect, and treat diseases including cancer, Alzheimer's, diabetes, and other diseases and enable us to live healthier lives.

Joe Biden

00:15:54 - 00:16:16 ()

I called for ARPA-H in my campaign, and after being elected President, notwithstanding the fact that Democrats and Republican legislators just don't talk to one another, Republicans, Independents, and Democrats in Congress came together and invested $1 billion initially to launch ARPA-H. Imagine the possibilities.

Joe Biden

00:16:16 - 00:16:49 ()

Vaccines that could prevent cancer like there is for HPV. Imagine molecular zip codes that could deliver drugs and gene therapy precisely to the right tissues. Imagine a simple blood test during an annual physical that could detect cancer early or the chance of a cure best. Imagine getting a simple shot instead of a grueling chemo or getting a pill from a local pharmacy instead of invasive treatments and long hospital stays.

Joe Biden

00:16:49 - 00:17:18 ()

Imagine treatments beyond cancer. Bold approaches to reduce maternal mortality, morbidity, something Vice President Harris is laser -- laser focused on. And imagine artificial retinas that could help blind people see. These are just a few of the ideas to illustrate the amazing potential of ARPA-H. When President Kennedy called for a moonshot, we didn't have all the tools and experience needed.

Joe Biden

00:17:18 - 00:17:55 ()

With our cancer moonshot today, we do. And I'm pleased to announce my selection as the inaugural director of ARPA-H, Dr. Renee Wegrzyn, who is here today. Doctor, where are you? Stand up. A leading biomedical scientist, a decade of experience leading multiple biotechs projects at DARPA. And by the way, it's about how to use all the assets we have.

Joe Biden

00:17:55 - 00:18:23 ()

All them. An entrepreneur in synthetic biology, she's going to bring the legendary DARPA attitude and culture and boldness of risk taking to ARPA-H to fill a critical need. Discoveries that save lives, change lives, and often start -- they often start in the lab bench. But then those basic research breakthroughs need to be tested, scaled, and brought to the clinic.

Joe Biden

00:18:23 - 00:18:51 ()

This may require unusual partnerships, that may require support to get over many obstacles that exist. That's why ARPA-H is designed -- what it's designed to do so the advances can reach all Americans sooner. I predict ARPA-h will emerge as a new and exciting member of America's biomedical ecosystem, but it's not enough to invent technologies to save lives.

Joe Biden

00:18:51 - 00:19:33 ()

We need to manufacture advanced biotechnologies here in the United States. That's why today I signed an executive order that directs the federal government to ensure biotechnologies invented in the United States of America are made in the United States of America, whether they are for cancer treatments or anything else like next generation fuels and materials, today's action is going to insure that America leads the world in biotechnology, bio manufacturing, creating jobs, reducing prices, strengthening supply chains so we don't have to rely on anywhere else in the world.

Joe Biden

00:19:33 - 00:19:59 ()

Here in America'll be made. And here's -- there's more that we're doing. Inflation Reduction Act that I signed into law puts a $2,000 cap on the total prescription drug costs for any senior on Medicare including cancer medicine. And for so many people, one of the first things they think about when they get a diagnosis, how am I going to pay for the treatment?

Joe Biden

00:19:59 - 00:20:24 ()

Do we need to sell the house? Do we need to skip payments on the car? Can we afford to send the kids to college? Inflation Reduction Act is a godsend. It's going to save people up -- one prostate cancer drug about $6,000 a year. Thousands of women are taking breast cancer treatments. That will see about a $7,000 year savings.

Joe Biden

00:20:24 - 00:20:54 ()

But that's not all. When I led the Cancer Moonshot as Vice President, one of the biggest issues I talked about was how federally funded cancer researchers were not sharing their results with their peers or the public because they wanted to have the answer. You all know it. As I mentioned earlier, we made federally funded cancer research more available to any patient, to any doctor anywhere for free.

Joe Biden

00:20:54 - 00:21:19 ()

And today, as President, we're making sure that transparency applies to all federally funded science, beyond just cancer. And this summer, I announced the new head of the National Cancer Institute, Boston's own -- Boston's own, Monica Battaglio -- Bertagnolli. Excuse me. Monica, you can call me "Bidden." [Laughter] And she's here today.

Joe Biden

00:21:19 - 00:21:51 ()

Where are you, Monica? Stand up. Thank you. The National Cancer Institute is launching a major national trial for those new tests I mentioned that could detect one or more cancers merely by taking blood samples. You know, if that's the case, these blood tests could lead to less invasive cancer detection tools that will save lives.

Joe Biden

00:21:51 - 00:22:14 ()

We're also launching the first ever Cancer Moonshot Scholar Program to support a new generation of scientists from every background, from every part of the country to launch their cutting edge research and careers. But we need everyone to get in the game. That's why I'm also calling on the science and medical communities to bring the boldest thinking to this fight.

Joe Biden

00:22:14 - 00:22:38 ()

I'm calling on the private sector to develop and test new treatments, make drugs more affordable, share more data and knowledge that can inform the public and benefit every company's research. And I'm respectfully calling on people living with cancer and caregivers and families to keep sharing their experience and pushing for progress.

Joe Biden

00:22:38 - 00:23:09 ()

Go to whitehouse.gov/cancermoonshot, share your ideas. So many of you already made a difference. Last month, I signed the so-called PACT Act into law. One of the most significant laws helping veterans and their families impacted by toxic exposure like burn pits that lead to cancer. It was veterans and their families, advocates, and allies who helped me get this bill to my desk.

Joe Biden

00:23:09 - 00:23:40 ()

They never gave up. They never stopped. They slept in the Capitol steps. It matters. It's personal to all of us. So let me close with this. Caroline, I couldn't be here and not talk about your Uncle Teddy. He was one of my dearest friends. One of the things that brings us close is families. It's the dreaded cancer that he and my Beau fought to the end and died months apart.

Joe Biden

00:23:40 - 00:24:09 ()

After Beau passed, Vicki wrote me a letter about how after Ted lost his older brother Joe, his father wrote to a friend who just lost his son. Caroline, your grandfather wrote, and I quote, when one of your loved one goes out of your life, you think of what he might have done with a few more years. And you wonder, you wonder what you're going to do with the rest of yours.

Joe Biden

00:24:09 - 00:24:40 ()

Then one day, because there is a world to be lived in, you find you are part of it, trying to accomplish something, something he did not have time enough to do. And perhaps that is the reason for it all. I hope so. End of quote. for so many of us, that's what we're trying to do, live a life worthy of the loved ones we've lost and the loved ones we can save.

Joe Biden

00:24:40 - 00:25:07 ()

With our hope and absolute courage, and with an unwillingness to postpone, and with a singular purpose for ourselves and as a nation, President Kennedy said in this day 60 years ago, we set sail on this new sea because of a new lifesaving knowledge to be gained. That must be used for progress of all people.

Joe Biden

00:25:07 - 00:25:37 ()

End of quote. In our time today, that's our charge to keep, in my view. I know we can do this together because I know this. There's nothing, nothing, nothing beyond our capacity, if we work together as the United States of America. God bless you all and may God protect our troops. Thank you for listening.