WASHINGTON — President Biden’s fledgling health agency, designed to accelerate under-funded research, just set its sights on one of the hottest areas of medicine — and one where the drug industry has a multibillion-dollar head start.
The White House announced Wednesday that the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health would bankroll a $24 million project by Emory University to build messenger RNA platforms to target “cancer and other diseases,” investing in the technology behind the U.S.’s most commonly used vaccines for Covid-19.
advertisement
The administration touted the news of CUREIT as the latest in Biden’s longtime mission to rein in cancer deaths, the Cancer Moonshot. But by using mRNA to treat cancer, ARPA-H is wading into a field that has advanced in fits and starts — and whose industry leaders have already spent multiples of the program’s entire budget into their own research. Moderna and BioNTech, massively profitable companies that have sold more than $80 billion worth of Covid-19 vaccines combined, have singled out oncology as the next big application for mRNA and invested accordingly.
Unlock this article by subscribing to STAT+ and enjoy your first 30 days free!
GET STARTED Log In
Previous article：
In boost for rare disease push, AstraZeneca to buy Amolyt Pharma
Next article： Affirmative action in medical school literally saved lives
Next article： Affirmative action in medical school literally saved lives
