Harold Varmus, the renowned researcher credited with doubling the NIH budget during the Clinton administration, is coming back to take the reins of the National Cancer Institute and its $5 billion annual budget. And top researchers in the field are clearly hoping that Varmus can work his magic one more time and snag more money to back new cancer programs at a critical time for the field.
The Nobel Prize-winning Varmus, 70, will take charge this summer after exiting his post as president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He's expected to have a quick impact on the NCI, which relies on a network to host clinical trials that was recently described by the IOM as approaching a "state of crisis." The IOM called for more funds to back cancer research and a more simplified approach to trial design.
"The fact that he already knows how to navigate the system is an incredible asset," Ellen Sigal, chairwoman of Friends of Cancer Research, told the Washington Post. Others, though, noted that Varmus' focus on cancer genetics underscores a need to get more of that work into the clinic, where it can be put to the test.
- here's the story from the New York Times
- check out the report from the Washington Post