Biden dedicated to cancer research ‘as long as I’m alive’
Vice President Joe Biden says he plans to dedicate his career after politics to cancer research — and to do so for “as long as I’m alive” — but ruled out serving in Hillary Clinton’s administration should she win the White House this fall, reports Dylan Scott of STAT.
Biden is still exploring ways in which he might help accelerate cancer research once he and President Obama leave office. His commitment is borne out of personal loss: His son Beau died of brain cancer last year.
Biden would want to work closely with a Clinton administration to build on the “cancer moonshot” he launched earlier this year and to help “coordinate” the initiative.
He has discussed his next steps with scientists, foundations, and other institutions, and he recalled a recent conversation with “a billionaire philanthropist” — whom his aides declined to identify — about how he might work with “existing philanthropic efforts relating to cancer.”
“I’m going to stay involved in this effort as long as I’m alive,” Biden said. “So I’m going to stay engaged. Exactly how, I don’t know yet.”
Major research institutions and drug companies have committed to sharing some of their work as part of the moonshot. As he has previously, Biden credited that progress not to his own ability to accelerate research — “there’s nothing indispensable about me,” he said — but to an ability to “gather people up and … help break down barriers.”