The Biden Cancer Initiative announced last week that it would suspend all operations. Former Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden founded the non-profit organization in the summer of 2017 with the goal of partnering with various health care organizations to speed up the process of finding a cure for cancer. The organization continued as an extension of Biden's leadership of the White House Cancer Moonshot program, which he oversaw as vice president.
Biden headed up the program in memory of his son, Beau, who died from brain cancer in 2015.
“For more than two years, the Biden Cancer Initiative has focused on creating and implementing programs and platforms that accelerated progress against cancer,” Greg Simon, president of the Biden Cancer Initiative, said in a statement. “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. We thank the community for their incredible response to our mission to improve the cancer journey for patients and to improve outcomes for all patients for generations to come.”
The Bidens resigned from the group's board of directors in April before the former vice president launched his 2020 presidential campaign. According to the group, they had difficult replacing the Bidens' “convening power and ability to get issues to the top of the list” in the health care realm.
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"We tried to power through but it became increasingly difficult to get the traction we needed to complete our mission,” Simon told the Associated Press.
The group raised millions of dollars in direct funding based on Biden's work and appearances to promote various partnerships.
The revelation comes after Biden promised to find a cure for cancer if he's elected president. He made the promise during an event in Iowa last month.
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