Biden Picks Biotech Executive to Lead New Biomedical Research Agency

WASHINGTON — President Biden has chosen Dr. Renee Wegrzyn, a Boston biotech government with authorities expertise, because the director of a brand new federal company aimed toward driving biomedical innovation, the White Home stated on Monday.

Mr. Biden will announce his intention to nominate Dr. Wegrzyn, together with a sequence of steps to advertise his so-called most cancers moonshot initiative, throughout a speech on the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston on the sixtieth anniversary of the previous president’s “moonshot” speech that ushered in an period of area journey.

Mr. Biden, whose son Beau died of mind most cancers in 2015, has a deep private dedication to advancing most cancers analysis. He helped create the most cancers moonshot when he was vp and proposed the brand new biomedical company this yr as a part of an effort to reinvigorate the initiative and, he has stated, to “finish most cancers as we all know it.”

Modeled after the Protection Superior Analysis Initiatives Company, the biomedical analysis company is called the Superior Analysis Initiatives Company for Well being. (Within the argot of Washington, the place each company has an acronym, the protection analysis company is named DARPA and the well being company is ARPA-H.)

Dr. Wegrzyn is at present a vp of enterprise improvement at Ginkgo Bioworks and the top of innovation at Concentric by Ginkgo, the corporate’s initiative to advance coronavirus testing and observe the unfold of the virus. She additionally labored at DARPA and its sister company, the Intelligence Superior Analysis Initiatives Exercise.

“Among the issues we face day-after-day — particularly in well being and illness — are so massive they’ll appear insurmountable,” Dr. Wegrzyn stated in an announcement offered by the White Home. “I’ve seen firsthand the super experience and power the U.S. biomedical and biotechnological enterprise can convey to resolve a few of the hardest well being challenges.”

Congress has appropriated $1 billion for ARPA-H, which is housed throughout the Nationwide Institutes of Well being. Whereas its director will not be a Senate-confirmed place, Mr. Biden could face pushback from Republicans, a few of whom have argued that the brand new company duplicates the N.I.H.’s efforts.

The White Home announcement drew reward from Ellen V. Sigal, the chairwoman of Buddies of Most cancers Analysis, a nonprofit that works with business and authorities to advance new therapies. Ms. Sigal referred to as Dr. Wegrzyn “an impressed alternative,” including, “She is a confirmed innovator and chief who is aware of science, is aware of make authorities work and understands the urgency for sufferers throughout the nation.”

Along with asserting his intent to nominate Dr. Wegrzyn, Mr. Biden on Monday issued an government order establishing a biotechnology and biomanufacturing initiative supposed to place the USA as a pacesetter within the area and to heart drug manufacturing within the nation. The coronavirus pandemic uncovered crucial weaknesses within the provide chain for medication and live-saving therapies.

“America has for too lengthy relied closely on overseas supplies for bioproduction,” the White Home stated in an announcement, “and our previous offshoring of crucial industries, together with biotechnology, presents a menace to our skill to entry key supplies like together with the energetic pharmaceutical elements for lifesaving medicines.”