What does it mean to be the breast cancer industry watchdog in 2021?
This year, when it became clear the Food and Drug Administration Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock was a potential nominee for the permanent role of the head of the FDA, our team sprang into action. Because we understand how the inner workings of this agency affect the daily lives of people living with breast cancer, we insist that the FDA Commissioner MUST prioritize public health over industry interest and be committed to ensuring a balance between approval speed and drug safety and efficacy. We mobilized our community of activists to urge the Biden administration make a better choice
The Biden administration didn’t move forward with her nomination, thanks to fearless advocates like our members, who aren’t afraid to demand accountability from those involved in the politics of breast cancer.
We are unabashed in our demands. In 2021 we also mobilized around these rapid response issues:
Breast Cancer Action released a welcome card to the administration laying out our top priorities by which the administration can truly address and end breast cancer: address systemic racism; increase transparency and accountability at the FDA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); focus on primary prevention; ensure better breast cancer treatments that are more effective and less toxic; and enact universal healthcare.
Despite the Supreme Court ruling in our favor to strike down Myriad Genetics’ patents on the human breast cancer genes in 2013, when North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis introduced new legislation to challenge this ruling, we joined the Patient Stakeholder Group and delivered a letter to the Senator stating our concerns and opposition.
We continue to galvanize breast cancer activists throughout the year on legislation and regulatory agency practices that impact people living with and at risk of breast cancer.
This watchdog role is indispensable to the breast cancer industry, and we won’t stop in 2022.
In solidarity,
The Breast Cancer Industry Watchdogs
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