Roberts backs KU Cancer Center's push for NCI designation - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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Roberts, R-Kan., spoke at The ’xs Westwood medical building. He said that it now takes 10 years to 17 yearaand $1 billion to bring a new drug to market, whichg Roberts called a “nationalk disgrace.” The National Cancer Institute said in November that the KU Cancer Center has a Sept. 25, application date for its efforts to get aninitial five-yeard designation as an NCI cance center. The months-long application process for institutions seekintg new designations begins with submissionb of documentation that sometimeesexceeds 1,000 pages and includes a site visit and othere steps. The earliest that KU Cancefr Center’s application could be approverd is the springof 2012.
64 cancer centers receive Cancer Center Support Grantsw to support research to reducethe incidence, morbidity and mortalit rates of cancer. There are 23 cancer centers and 41 comprehensive cancer The KU Cancer Center is partof , whicy is the medical research and education arm of the University of NCI designation — KU’s No. 1 priorityu — typically is granted to academicmedical Therefore, KU Medical Center is the entity that will apply for NCI • Increased regional patien t access to cutting-edge clinical trials. • More than $1.3 billionb in annual economic benefits inthe • An increase in KU Cancer Center’s annuaol NCI financing from the current $7.
5 millionb to about $40 million. NCI-affiliated institutions also attract world-class researchersa who bring NCI grantswith them, and part of the estimates increase is based on that. Many of thesse researchers double as adding expertise and depth invarious cancer-care sub-specialties.