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Biden Cancer Initiative Suspends Work

The nonprofit Biden Cancer Initiative has suspended operations, the Associated Press reports.

Former Vice President Joe Biden and Jill Biden started the nonprofit in 2017 to move forward with some of the Cancer Moonshot efforts that began during the Obama Administration. Vice President Biden headed up that government effort, which began in 2016. His son, Beau Biden, died of brain cancer the previous year.

According to the AP, in its two years of operations, the Biden Cancer Initiative raised millions of dollars in direct funding for its operations, but also indirect pledges It notes former Vice President Biden highlighted nearly 60 commitments by pharmaceutical firms, other healthcare companies, and organizations to the group during a speech last fall, but that only 10 commitments had been made since then.

As former Vice President Biden's 2020 presidential campaign kicked off this year, both Bidens stepped down from the nonprofit's board as an ethics precaution, the AP says. This, a staffer tells it, has made it more difficult for it to operate.

"Today, we are suspending activities given our unique circumstances. We remain personally committed to the cause, but at this time will have to pause efforts," Greg Simon, the nonprofit's executive director, says in a statement.

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