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With Cancer Moonshot Leaping Forward, Congressman Higgins Invites Vice President Biden to Visit Roswell Park Cancer Institute

Congressman Points to Longstanding Leadership in Breakthrough Research at RPCI

Washington, DC, July 5, 2016

Congressman Brian Higgins (NY-26) is reaching out to Vice President Joseph Biden, formally inviting the leader of the “Cancer Moonshot” initiative to see first-hand the outstanding cancer research happening right here in Western New York at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. 

“Roswell Park gave the world cancer research when it opened as the first dedicated cancer center in 1898, and it has been contributing to our understanding of cancer and pioneering treatments ever since,” Higgins writes in a letter to the Vice President, which also cites Roswell Park’s most recent work with Cuba to bring the CimaVax lung cancer vaccine to the United States.

Congressman Higgins, a member of the Congressional Cancer Caucus, was among hundreds of Western New Yorkers participating in and attending a Cancer Moonshot Summit at Roswell Park, featuring a live-feed of remarks by Vice President Biden, on June 29, 2016.  Higgins also recently outlined why he fights for Roswell Park in an op-ed printed in The Buffalo News.

The President first announced the “Cancer Moonshot” initiative in his annual State of the Union Address.  This year the Administration dedicated $195 million in new cancer research funding immediately with plans for an additional $755 million FY2017.   Vice President Joe Biden, who lost his son to cancer last year, chaired the first meeting of the Cancer Moonshot Task Force on February 1st. 

Higgins, whose district includes Roswell Park Cancer Institute, one of just 45 National Cancer Institute designated comprehensive cancer centers in the country, has been a champion for a substantial increase in the federal commitment to research aimed at better treatments and the elimination of disease. 

Higgins is the lead Democratic sponsor of the Cancer Drug Coverage Parity Act (H.R. 2739), a bipartisan bill which aims to provide equal insurance coverage for traditional, intravenous chemotherapy and orally-administered prescription chemotherapy drugs.  Last year the Congressman also introduced H.R. 531, the Accelerating Biomedical Research Act, bipartisan legislation that would add over $57 billion in new funding to the National Institutes of Health over the next 6 years.