Noted

Francis Collins, MD, PhD, will continue to serve as director of the NIH, a job he has held since 2009. Collins had been asked to stay in the job temporarily following the inauguration of President Donald Trump; in June, Trump officially nominated him for the job.

Former Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, celebrated the launch of the Biden Cancer Initiative, which aims to accelerate progress in cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, research, and treatment. The initiative will operate separately from the federal Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot, which began under President Barack Obama, and will not receive government funding.

The FDA announced a plan to reduce the backlog of about 200 requests for Orphan Drug Designation that are pending review within 90 days. The agency will increase staff to consider applications and employ a new, streamlined process to “increase consistency and efficiency of its reviews.”

The NIH launched the Next Generation Researchers Initiative, a revised approach to support early- and mid-career scientists. It will allocate $210 million annually for 5 years to researchers with less than 10 years' experience as a principal investigator who are about to lose all NIH funding; who are seeking support for their next RO1 grant; or who just missed funding for their first competitive renewal.

The phase II NCI-MATCH trial reached its goal of sequencing tumor samples from 6,000 patients, nearly 2 years earlier than anticipated, researchers announced. The precision medicine trial seeks to determine the effectiveness of treatment directed by genomic profiling in patients whose disease has progressed following standard treatments.

In a 9-0 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed that biosimilar manufacturers needn't wait for the FDA's OK before giving 6 months' notice to the maker of a brand-name therapeutic that a competing product will be launched. The decision means that nearly identical versions of biologic drugs could reach the market sooner.

For more news on cancer research, visit Cancer Discovery online at http://cancerdiscovery.aacrjournals.org/content/early/by/section.