Biden cancer charity spent zero on research— millions in salaries

Tax filings show that the charity raked in over $4.8 million in the fiscal years 2017 and 2018 before activity ramped down and Biden pursued other interests. Over $3 million of that money went towards salaries, many of which were extremely generous.

The charity's president, former Pfizer executive Gregory Simon, was provided a salary of $429,850 in the fiscal year of 2018 alone. Danielle Carnival, the former chief of staff for a cancer charity founded by former President Barack Obama, received a salary of $258,207 in the same period.

Other expenses for the 2018 include $59,356 on travel and $56,738 on conferences. Both of these expense categories ballooned the following year, with $97,149 spent on travelling and a whopping $742,953 spent on conferences. Yet when it comes to grants offered by the organization, the total amounted to $0.

According to their mission statement, the Biden Cancer Initiative seeks to "develop and drive implementation of solutions to accelerate progress in cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis, research and care and to reduce disparities in cancer outcomes." The charity was founded in 2017, in the wake of Beau Biden's death to cancer.

According to the press release announcing the launch of the foundation, Kim Thiboldeaux, CEO, Cancer Support Community and member of the Biden Cancer Initiative Board of Directors, said: "The Biden Cancer Initiative offers people diagnosed with cancer and their loved ones hope that our nation's leaders truly recognize the urgency that ending cancer as we know it demands. I am humbled to be a part of this important Initiative, and committed to bringing the patient voice to inform all that the organization endeavors to achieve."

According to Simon, the charity has been largely inactive since Joe Biden stepped away from the organization in 2019 to run for president. "We tried to power through but it became increasingly difficult to get the traction we needed to complete our mission," he stated in a 2019 interview.