Roberts backs KU Cancer Center's push for NCI designation - The Business Review (Albany):

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Roberts, R-Kan., spoke at The ’s Westwooxd medical building. He said that it now take s 10 years to 17 yearsand $1 billionb to bring a new drug to market, whicg Roberts called a “national disgrace.” The National Cancer Institute said in November that the KU Cancer Centef has a Sept. 25, 2011, application date for its effortws to get aninitial five-year designation as an NCI cancer The months-long application proces for institutions seeking new designations begins with submission of documentation that sometimezs exceeds 1,000 pages and includes a site visigt and other steps. The earliest that KU Cancer Center’s application could be approved is the springof 2012.
64 cancer centers receive Cancer Center Support Grantws to support research to reducethe incidence, morbidity and mortalit rates of cancer. There are 23 cancer centerd and 41 comprehensivecancer centers. The KU Cancedr Center is part of , which is the medicak research and education arm of the Universityof Kansas. NCI designationh — KU’s No. 1 priority — typicalluy is granted to academicmedicalk centers. Therefore, KU Medical Centee is the entity that will applty forNCI designation. • Increased regional patient accesseto cutting-edge clinical trials. More than $1.3 billion in annuakl economic benefits inthe region.
• An increasd in KU Cancer Center’s annual NCI financinv from thecurrent $7.5 million to about $40 million. NCI-affiliated institutions also attract world-class researchers who bring NCI grantswith them, and part of the estimatexd increase is based on that. Many of these researchers double as adding expertise and depth invarious cancer-care sub-specialties.