Worry not, because support for cancer research remains strong, NCI Director Ned Sharpless said, even as the institute stalls in its attempts to increase paylines in fiscal year 2022 and as the White House requests a nearly $200 million cutto the FY23 NCI budget.
President Joe Biden’s new national goal for the reignited Cancer Moonshot—to cut today’s age-adjusted cancer mortality rates by at least 50% before 2050—is bold, but achievable, said NCI Director Ned Sharpless.
NCI is temporarily reducing its paylines as the federal government is being funded at FY2021 levels via another continuing resolution, delaying the budgeting process for most federal agencies in the new fiscal year.
The National Cancer Act of 1971 established an unprecedented government-wide plan to eradicate a major disease, creating institutions that have no equivalent in other therapeutic areas and galvanizing the nationwide conversation about cancer.
NCI is asking for an appropriation of $7.8 billion for fiscal year 2023—about $800 million above the House’s FY22 proposed budget for NCI.
True, President Joe Biden is proposing the largest-ever funding increase for NIH, with a substantial percentage of funds going toward cancer.
President Joe Biden’s proposed Advanced Research Projects Agency-Health would be a welcome partner to NCI—particularly in conducting large, collaborative clinical investigations, NCI Director Ned Sharpless said.“I think having ARPA-H as part of the NIH is good for the NCI,” Sharpless said April 11 in his remarks at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research. “How this would fit with the ongoing efforts in cancer at the NCI is still something to work out.”
NCI has established a program at Frederick National Laboratory to manufacture CAR T-cell therapies for multicenter clinical trials.
Pandemic notwithstanding, NCI is on track to reach the 15th percentile for the payline by 2025—a goal set by institute Director Ned Sharpless in response to a deluge of grant applications.
NCI has joined a nationwide initiative to increase the number of underrepresented minority faculty at NIH-funded cancer hospitals.
