Biden-Harris Administration Announces $150 Million from ARPA-H to Deliver Progress on Biden Cancer Moonshot Goals and Improve Health Outcomes
More than two years ago, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden reignited the Cancer Moonshot with the goals of reducing the cancer death rate in the United States by at least half—preventing more than 4 million cancer deaths—by 2047, and improving the experience of people who are touched by cancer. As part of this effort, President Biden and Vice President Harris secured bipartisan Congressional support to establish the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to generate breakthroughs in ways to prevent, detect, and treat cancer and other diseases. In its first two years, ARPA-H has invested more than $400 million to fast-track progress on how we prevent, detect, and treat cancer.
Today in New Orleans, the President and First Lady will announce up to $150 million in ARPA-H awards to develop technologies that will allow surgeons to provide more successful tumor-removal surgeries for people facing cancer. These awards will support researchers from eight teams across the country who are pursuing innovative ideas as part of ARPA-H’s Precision Surgical Interventions (PSI) program.
For the nearly two million Americans who are newly diagnosed with solid tumor cancers each year, surgical removal is often the first step in their treatment. PSI aims to make these surgeries more effective, reducing the need for repeat surgeries and decreasing the damage to healthy tissue, ultimately saving and extending lives.
Since reigniting the Cancer Moonshot in 2022, the Biden-Harris Administration has mobilized the Federal Government and private companies, healthcare providers, research institutions, and patient and advocacy groups to accelerate progress on prevention, early detection, innovation, and support for patients and their families.
Today’s announcement builds on recent efforts by the Biden-Harris Administration to end cancer as we know it:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in early August issued $9 million in new awards to 18 HRSA-funded health centers to improve access to life-saving cancer screenings in underserved communities. As part of these Accelerating Cancer Screening grants, a program created as part of the Biden Cancer Moonshot in 2022, health centers partner directly with National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Centers to expedite patient access to diagnosis and cancer treatment.
ARPA-H announced a new program in early August, POSEIDON, which will invest in new technologies to develop cancer screenings that accurately detect a number of cancers, even at home, a reality. These innovative Multi-Cancer-Early Detection (MCED) tests could improve outcomes for millions of Americans facing cancer.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a proposed rule in July that would, for the first time ever, enable Indian Health Services (IHS) and Tribal facilities to receive separate payment for high-cost drugs for people with Medicare, allowing clinics to provide certain health care services, like cancer treatment, in Tribal communities.