The Need to Continue Funding for Cancer Compounds
Pharmaceutical researchers are now working on 861 medicines for cancer. Many are are in development involving innovative research on using existing medicines in new ways with many clinical trials proceeding. The medicines in development—all in either clinical trials or under FDA review including: 122 for lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer death in the United States:
106 for breast cancer, which is expected to strike more than 180,000 American women each year; 103 for prostate cancer, which is expected to kill more than 28,000 American men each year; and 70 for colorectal cancer, the third most common cancer in both men and women in this country. Additional medicines target brain cancer, kidney cancer, leukemia, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, skin cancer, and others. (Source PhRMA).
Bottom-Line: Despite progress, cancer remains the second leading cause of death by disease in the United States, exceeded only by heart disease. In 2008, some 565,650 Americans were expected to die of cancer—more than 1,500 people a day. Obama has made healthcare a top concern on his agenda as part of this year’s economic stimulus package with the federal government increasing funding to the National Institutes of Health by $10 B.
