Walden, Pallone Applaud FDA’s Establishment of Oncology Center of Excellence

WASHINGTON, DC – House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden (R-OR) and Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) today welcomed the FDA's establishment of an Oncology Center of Excellence. The announcement, part of Vice President Biden's cancer moonshot initiative, is the culmination of the FDA's June 2016 announcement to create the first-of-its-kind center.

"The launch of the FDA Oncology Center of Excellence is a key component of 21st Century Cures, a bipartisan law changing the way we treat disease," said Chairman Walden and Ranking Member Pallone. "As the first designated center with a coordinated review of treatments and care, patients battling cancer will have – and should have – a renewed sense of hope and optimism."

Last summer, then-Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Pallone introduced H.R. 5414, the FDA Cross-Center Collaboration Act of 2016. The bipartisan bill sought to modernize the agency to help streamline the review of drugs and devices for major disease areas across product centers. The establishment of the FDA's Oncology Center of Excellence is consistent with this previous legislation, which would help accelerate the discovery, development and delivery of new cures and treatments.