Recently released tax filings have shown that the Biden Cancer Initiative, formed by the Biden family in 2017 following the death of their son Beau Biden due to brain cancer had spent nearly zero dollars on actual cancer research and spent a majority on Salaries and traveling expenses.
In fiscal years 2017 and 2018, the charity took in $4,809,619 in contributions and spent $3,070,301 on payroll. The foundation was founded in 2017 with a mission to “develop and drive implementation of solutions to of solutions to accelerate progress in cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis and research and care to and to reduce disparities in outcomes.”
In 2017, $56,738 was spent on conferences, and $59,356 was spent on travel. In 2018, the foundation spent $97,149 on travel and $742,953 on conferences.
The foundation was created after the death of former Vice President Biden’s son Beau Biden died on May 30,2015 after his brain cancer resurfaced and he was admitted to Walter Reed Medical Center in Betheseda Maryland.
The foundation is also filled with former staff from the Obama administration, including its President Gregory Simon. Simon was a member of the administration’s cancer taskforce. Simon was also a longtime healthcare lobbyist in DC and an executive at Pfizer, the pharmaceutical company.
In 2017, he made $224,39 and in 2018, he made $429,850 almost doubling his salary.
The filings show that the foundation spent zero dollars on actual grants to hospitals and research institutes.
Several other former Obama administration officials are involved with the foundation, including Danielle Carnival, who was Chief of Staff for President Obama’s cancer initiative, the Cancer Moonshot Task Force. She took home $258,207 in 2018.
