President Joseph R. Biden The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, DC 20500

February 11, 2021

Dear President Biden,

The undersigned physicians, researchers, and leaders in oncology, including representatives who served on your Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel, would like to thank you for your lifelong commitment to science, patients, and innovation. As the First Lady said recently, “This is the fight of our lives” and we could not agree more. We stand ready to support you, Dr. Biden, and your Administration in your quest to end cancer as we know it.

We applaud the inspiring appointments you have made to your cabinet and other leadership roles as you set out to combat cancer and COVID-19. We write to also express an urgency to make one of those remaining appointments and would like to respectfully voice our support for you to nominate Dr. Janet Woodcock as the permanent Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

As leaders in oncology with decades of experience, we know that now more than ever, the FDA requires a strong and respected leader who has the deep understanding of science, public health, and drug development to steer the country through these unprecedented challenges. Taking the next step and nominating Dr. Woodcock as FDA Commissioner is the leadership we need to move forward in our deep understanding of science and would affirm to the American public that the FDA will continue to be the global gold standard to change patient’s lives for the better.

Dr. Woodcock is uniquely qualified to run the FDA at this vital moment for the science and research taking place across the country. Many of us have known Dr. Woodcock throughout her decades of service as the director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. We have witnessed her impeccable ability to lead the Agency as it maintains the highest global standard for regulatory science, innovation, and protecting public health.

During her time at the FDA, Dr. Woodcock’s leadership has overseen the approval of groundbreaking new treatments for patients and collaborative innovations in cancer care. Under her leadership at CDER, FDA approved more than 150 new medicines designated as Breakthrough Therapies, representing some of the most novel and impactful treatments, many of which are for previously untreatable forms of cancer. The Agency’s decisions have protected patients and advanced lifesaving treatments that are changing the landscape for cancer care across the world. We believe that no individual is better positioned to navigate the important work of the FDA and the current pandemic than the person leading the FDA right now.

Dr. Woodcock’s experience will enhance the FDA’s commitment to fostering science-driven solutions during a crucial time for the Agency and our Nation’s public health. We ask you to do what is right for cancer patients, the scientific community, and the country by swiftly nominating Dr. Janet Woodcock to be our permanent FDA Commissioner. Sincerely,

David B. Agus, MD Professor of Medicine and Engineering, University of Southern California CEO, Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine

Syed A. Ahmad, MD, FACS Professor of Surgery; The Hayden Family Endowed Chair for Cancer Research; Co-Director, University of Cincinnati Cancer Center; Chief Division Surgical Oncology, The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine

James P. Allison, PhD* Regental Professor and Chair, Department of Immunology, MD Anderson Cancer Center 2018 Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Physiology

Dario C. Altieri, MD President and CEO; Director, The Wistar Institute Cancer Center

Howard H. Bailey, MD Director, University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center; Andy and Susan North Professor of Cancer Research, Professor of Medicine and Obstetrics & Gynecology, Associate Dean of Oncology, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health

Anna Barker, PhD Former Deputy Director, National Cancer Institute Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Arizona State University

Robert C. Bast, MD VP Translational Research, MD Anderson Cancer Center

Mary C. Beckerle, PhD* CEO, Huntsman Cancer Institute

Al B. Benson III, MD, FACP, FASCO Professor of Medicine, Northwestern University

Edward J. Benz, Jr., MD President and CEO Emeritus, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Mitchel S. Berger, MD* Professor, Neurological Surgery; Director, Brain Tumor Center, University of California San Francisco

Monica M. Bertagnolli, MD Professor of Surgery, Harvard Medical School Group Chair, Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology

Rohit Bhargava, PhD Director, Cancer Center at Illinois; Founder Professor in Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Elizabeth Blackburn, PhD Professor Emerita, University of California San Francisco

Douglas W. Blayney, MD Professor of Medicine (Oncology), Stanford University President 2009-10, American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)

Jeffrey Bluestone, PhD* Distinguished Professor, University of California San Francisco President and CEO, Sonoma Biotherapeutics

Joan S. Brugge, PhD Professor; Director of Ludwig Center at Harvard, Harvard Medical School

Paul A. Bunn, MD Distinguished Professor and James Dudley Chair, University of Colorado Cancer Center

Lisa H. Butterfield, PhD Vice President, PICI Research and Development

Michael A. Caligiuri, MD Past President, AACR

John L. Cleveland, PhD Cortner-Couch Endowed Chair; Director, Moffitt Cancer Center

Jorge Cortes, MD Professor of Medicine; Director, Georgia Cancer Center Cecil F. Whitaker Jr., GRA Eminent Scholar Chair in Cancer

Kenneth H. Cowan, MD, PhD Director and Physician-In-Chief, Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center; Director, Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer, University of Nebraska Medical Center

Kevin J. Cullen, MD Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Distinguished Professor of Oncology; Director, University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center

Prescott Deininger, PhD Director, Tulane Cancer Center Joe W. and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Chair in Oncology

George D. Demetri, MD Director, Sarcoma Center; Senior Vice President for Experimental Therapeutics Institute Physician; Quick Family Chair in Medical Oncology; Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Gerald V. Denis, PhD Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Medicine; Co-Director, BU-BMC Cancer Center

Mikael Dolsten, MD, PhD* Professor, Member, Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel

Brian J. Druker, MD Director, OHSU Knight Cancer Institute

Raymond N. DuBois, MD, PhD Director, MUSC Hollings Cancer Center

Shelley Earp, MD Director, UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Wafik S. El-Deiry, MD, PhD, FACP Director, Cancer Center; Associate Dean, Oncologic Sciences; Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University

Laura Esserman, MD Director, UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center; Alfred A. de Lorimier Endowed Chair in General Surgery; Professor of Surgery and Radiology, University of California San Francisco

Eric R. Fearon, MD, PhD Emanuel N. Maisel Professor of Oncology; Professor, Departments of Internal Medicine, Human Genetics, and Pathology; Director, University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center

Robert L. Ferris, MD, PhD Director, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center; Hillman Professor of Oncology; Associate Vice-Chancellor for Cancer Research; Co-Director, Tumor Microenvironment Center; Professor of Otolaryngology, of Immunology, and of Radiation Oncology

Richard I. Fisher, MD President and CEO, Fox Chase Cancer Center; Executive Vice President, Temple University Health System; Senior Associate Dean for Cancer Programs, Lewis Katz School of Medicine; Robert C. Young, MD, Chair in Cancer Research, Temple University

Keith T. Flaherty, MD Director of Clinical Research, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center

Charles S. Fuchs, MD, MPH Director, Yale Cancer Center Physician-in-Chief, Smilow Cancer Hospital

Stanton L. Gerson, MD Professor of Medicine and Oncology, Case Western Reserve University, Case Comprehensive Cancer Center

Gad Getz, PhD* Professor, Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School Director of Bioinformatics, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Department of Pathology Director, Cancer Genome Computational Analysis and Institute Member, Broad Institute

Laurie H. Glimcher, MD* President and CEO, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Daniel A. Haber, MD, PhD Director, Mass General Cancer Center; Kurt J Isselbacher Professor, Harvard Medical School

Roy S. Herbst, MD, PhD Ensign Professor of Medicine; Chief of Medical Oncology; Associate Director for Translational Research; Yale Comprehensive Cancer Center, Yale School of Medicine

Helen Heslop, MD, DSc (Hon) Dan L Duncan Chair, Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics; Interim Director, Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center, Baylor College of Medicine

Lifang Hou, MD, PhD* Professor; Chief, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention, Department of Preventive Medicine; Director, Center for Global Oncology (CGO), Institite for Global Health (IGH), Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University

Tyler Jacks, PhD* Director, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT

Elizabeth M. Jaffee, MD, FAACR, FACP* The Dana and Albert “Cubby” Broccoli Professor of Oncology; Deputy Director, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins; Co-Director, of the Gastrointestinal Cancers Program; Johns Hopkins

Candace S. Johnson, PhD President and CEO, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

Carl H. June, MD Richard W. Vague Professor in Immunotherapy, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine; Director, Center for Cellular Immunotherapies; Director, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy; Perelman School of Medicine, Smilow Center for Translational Research, University of Pennsylvania

Karen E. Knudsen, MBA, PhD President, Association of American Cancer Institutes

Primo “Lucky” N. Lara, Jr., MD Director, University of California Davis Comprehensive Cancer Center; Professor and Executive Associate Dean for Cancer Programs, UC Davis School of Medicine

Steven D. Leach, MD Director, Dartmouth Norris Cotton Cancer Center; Professor of Molecular and Systems Biology; Preston T. and Virginia R. Kelsey Distinguished Chair in Cancer, Dartmouth Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health System

Kelvin Lee, MD Director, Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center

Bruce Levine, PhD Barbara and Edward Netter Professor in Cancer Gene Therapy, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Scott M. Lippman, MD Director, Moores Cancer Center; Distinguished Professor of Medicine; Senior Associate Dean and Associate Vice Chancellor for Cancer Research and Care; Chugai Pharmaceutical Chair in Cancer, UC San Diego School of Medicine

Thomas J. Lynch Jr., MD President and Director, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center

Crystal L. Mackall, MD Ernest and Amelia Gallo Family Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine; Director, Stanford Center for Cancer Cell Therapy; Director, Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at Stanford; Co-Executive Director, Stanford Laboratory for Cell and Gene Medicine; Associate Director, Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University

Robert S. Mannel, MD Rainbolt Family Endowed Chair in Cancer; Director, Stephenson Cancer Center; Associate Vice Provost for Cancer Programs; Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center

Alexander Marson, MD, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Medicine; Director, Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology; Scientific Director of Human Health, Innovative Genomics Institute, University of California San Francisco

Deborah K. Mayer, PhD, RN, AOCN, FAAN* Frances Hill Fox Distinguished Professor, School of Nursing Director of Cancer Survivorship, Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center

Ruben Mesa, MD Executive Director, Mays Cancer Center at UT Health MD Anderson

Edith Peterson Mitchell, MD, MACP, FCPP, FRCP* Clinical Professor of Medicine and Medical Oncology, Department of Medical Oncology; Director, Center to Eliminate Cancer Disparities; Associate Director, Diversity Affairs, Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson

Harold L. Moses, MD Director Emeritus, Vanderbilt-Ingram Comprehensive Cancer Center

Benjamin G. Neel, MD, PhD Professor of Medicine, NYU School of Medicine; Director, Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center; An NCI- designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, NYU Langone Health

William G. Nelson, MD, PhD Director, Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center

Stephen D. Nimer, MD Director, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center

Larry Norton, MD, FASCO, FAACR Senior Vice President, Office of the President; Medical Director, Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center; Deputy Director for Clinical and Translational Science, MSK Comprehensive Cancer Center; Norna S. Sarofim Chair of Clinical Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Augusto Ochoa, MD* Director, Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center; Al Copeland - Cancer Crusaders Chair; Professor of Pediatrics, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center

Gilbert S. Omenn, MD, PhD Harold T. Shapiro Distinguished University Professor of Computational Medicine & Bioinformatics, Internal Medicine, Human Genetics and Public Health, University of Michigan

Raphael E. Pollock, MD, PhD, FACS Director, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, The James Cancer Hospital & Solove Research Institute

Mark Reeves, MD, PhD, FACS, FASCO Director, Loma Linda University Cancer Center

Antoni Ribas, MD, PhD Professor of Medicine, Professor of Surgery, and Professor of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, University of California Los Angeles Medical Center

Barbara K. Rimer, DrPH, Dean and Alumni Distinguished Professor* Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Ze’ev Ronai, PhD Director, NCI Designated Cancer Center, SBP Discovery

Anil K. Rustgi, MD Director, Columbia University Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center

Howard I. Scher, MD, FASCO D. Wayne Calloway Chair in Urologic Oncology; Head, Biomarker Development Program, Office of the Physician in Chief; Member and Attending Physician, Genitourinary Oncology Service, Department of Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

Padmanee Sharma, MD, PhD Professor, Department of Immunology, Professor, Department of GU Medical Oncology Scientific Director, Immunotherapy Platform, T.C. and Jeanette Hsu Endowed Chair in Cell Biology, MD Anderson Cancer Center

Phillip A. Sharp, PhD Institute Professor, Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research

Ellen V. Sigal, PhD* Chairperson and Founder, Friends of Cancer Research

William Small, Jr., MD, FACRO, FACR, FASTRO Professor and Chairman, Department of Radiation Oncology, Stritch School of Medicine Loyola University Chicago; Director, Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center

Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD* Chairman, Chan Soon-Shiong Family Foundation

Joann B. Sweasy, PhD Director, University of Arizona Cancer Center; Nancy C. and Craig M. Berge Endowed Chair for the Director of the Cancer Center

Margaret A. Tempero, MD Director, UCSF Pancreas Center; Rombauer Family Distinguished Professorship in Pancreas Cancer Clinical and Translational Science; Professor of Medicine, University of California San Franscisco Department of Medicine Editor-in-Chief, JNCCN-Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network

Dan Theodorescu, MD, PhD Professor of Surgery, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine; PHASE ONE Foundation Distinguished Chair; Director, Cedars-Sinai CANCER; Director, Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute and Center

David A. Tuveson MD, PhD Director of the Cancer Center at CSHL, and Roy J. Zuckerberg Professor of Cancer Research Chief Scientist of the Lustgarten Foundation President-Elect, AACR

Cornelia Ulrich, MS, PhD Executive Director, Comprehensive Cancer Center at Huntsman Cancer Institute Jon M. and Karen Huntsman Presidential Professor in Cancer Research Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Utah

Richard A. Van Etten, MD, PhD Director, Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center; Chao Family Endowed Director’s Chair in Cancer Research & Treatment; Professor of Medicine and Biological Chemistry; Senior Associate Dean & Associate Vice Chancellor for Cancer, University of California, Irvine

Geoffrey Wahl, PhD Professor, Gene Expression Laboratory, The Salk Institute, GEL-W

Louis M. Weiner, MD Director, Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center; Director, MedStar Georgetown Cancer Institute; Chairman, Department of Oncology; Francis L. and Charlotte G. Gragnani Chair, Georgetown University Medical Center

Roy S. Weiner, M.D. Retired: Schlieder Professor of Medical Oncology and Associate Dean for Clinical Research Training, Tulane University School of Medicine

Cheryl L. Willman, MD The Maurice and Marguerite Liberman Distinguished Chair in Cancer Research; UNM Distinguished Professor of Pathology; Director & CEO, University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center

Jedd Wolchok, MD, PhD Chief of the Melanoma and Immunotherapeutics Service; Associate Attending Physician; Lloyd J. Old Chair for Clinical Investigation, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Douglas Yee, MD Director, Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota

W. K. Alfred Yung, MD* Professor of Neuro-Oncology, Department of Neuro-Oncology, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

*Member of the Obama-Biden Cancer Moonshot Blue Ribbon Panel