“We need to keep up this momentum that was initiated by the Moonshot,” Mr. Biden told roughly 450 attendees Tuesday during the dedication of the $323 million cancer center in Omaha. “We need a sense of urgency infused into the effort to fight cancer.”
The cancer center is a joint venture between Nebraska Medicine and the University of Nebraska Medical Center. It will house all cancer-related functions from both Omaha-based institutions, including research and inpatient and outpatient care, according to the report.
The center, which combined $50 million in state money, $35 million from the city of Omaha and $5 million from Douglas County, represents the largest project both organizations have embarked on, and the largest public-private partnership in Nebraska’s history, according to the report. The rest of the funding was raised by private donors.
Mr. Biden, noting that the Trump administration has not picked up the Cancer Moonshot initiative, has since launched the Biden Cancer Initiative, for which he will soon announce a board of leading experts in the field, according to the report. His initiative is meant to be a “convening mechanism” to bring together researchers and institutions and improve the sharing of information.
The Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center is named after a donation from Pamela Buffett through her foundation, the Rebecca Susan Buffett Foundation. Pamela Buffett’s husband, Fred Buffett, died of kidney cancer in 1997. The amount of her donation was not disclosed, according to the report.
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