This story was originally featured as part of the Massachusetts Playbook newsletter.
— TURNING ON THE CHARM: With President Joe Biden coming to Boston for his big Cancer Moonshot speech, a bipartisan group of power brokers — including Rep. Richard Neal, UMass President Marty Meehan and MassBio’s Joe Boncore— is ramping up its efforts to make Massachusetts the headquarters for the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health.
The group, which has been active since May, is formally unveiling its name, the Coalition for Health Advances & Research in Massachusetts, today as well as a website to push the Bay State’s pitch forward. Massachusetts is expecting competition from other states to land the headquarters for ARPA-H, which will focus on delivering treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases. More on the coalition’s efforts from the Boston Globe’s Jon Chesto.
— NOT A COINCIDENCE: Biden will deliver his speech at the JFK Library 60 years to the day after President John F. Kennedy delivered his moonshot address in Houston.