Drug shortages threaten lives—cancer patients cannot wait

Fifty-four years ago, in his State of the Union Message in January 1971, President Nixon proposed a visionary and vigorous new challenge.  He said “The time has come in America when the same kind of concentrated effort that split the atom and took man to the moon” should be applied to finding a cure for cancer.  He followed up by requesting an appropriation of $100 million, and the promise to ask for whatever additional funds could be effectively used.