President Barack Obama signed a memorandum yesterday that established a White House taskforce to tackle cancer, the New York Times reports.
The taskforce will be led by Vice President Joe Biden and will include members from about a dozen government agencies, the Times says, noting that its first meeting is to be Monday.
Obama announced this cancer 'moonshot' in his State of the Union address earlier this month and that Biden would lead it. Biden's son Beau died of brain cancer last year, making this a personal effort for him.
Officials tell the Times that the effort is to focus on "making the most of federal investments, targeted incentives, private sector efforts from industry and philanthropy, patient engagement initiatives, and other mechanisms to support cancer research and enable progress in treatment and care."
At Medium, Biden adds that the taskforce will also address data sharing and interoperability, patient access to clinical trials, and more. He also notes that cancer research has made numerous strides in recent years and is on the verge of both research and therapeutic breakthroughs.
"We're trying to get to a quantum leap on the path to a cure," he writes.