Bob Wright Has a Message for the NIH: You've Flunked!
President Obama signed the 21st Century Cures Act into law on Tuesday, legislation that includes an initiative to research a cure for cancer. Former NBC CEO Bob Wright said the deal will be a good opportunity for the new administration to monitor how efficiently federal money is being spent.
“The whole 21st Century [bill] is a great idea, it’s $6 billion -- $5 billion of that will go to [the National Institute of Health],” he told the FOX Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo.
Wright, who started the Suzanne Wright Foundation with a national campaign titled “Code Purple,” in honor of his late wife who died of pancreatic cancer, was highly critical of the National Institute of Health. In his opinion, it would function much more effectively if it were privately funded.
“The National Cancer Institute has failed in dealing with pancreatic cancer. For 50 years there has been no improvement in mortality. Ninety-two percent die and within a couple of years -- most in the first year… every single year you’ve flunked,” he said.
The former NBC CEO also weighed in on the future of media and television, which Wright said will have to learn to coexist.
“The Internet is getting stronger because it has got a lot of video,” he said. “The people in the video business are using a lot of Internet to enhance their own activities and cable television gets enhanced, broadcast television gets considerably enhanced, especially news using Internet tactics and tools and social media.”