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Please join us for our third lecture, “Understanding the Journey: The Past, Present, and Future of Cardiovascular Disease in Women ” with Dr. Nanette Wenger of Emory University Division of Medicine. 

This year marks the 70th Anniversary of the establishment of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

NHLBI began as the National Heart Institute on June 16, 1948, when President Harry S. Truman signed the National Heart Act. In 1969, the Institute expanded its mission (and name) to cover research on lung diseases, and in 1976, the Institute grew further to include blood disorders.

To commemorate the Institute’s 70th anniversary and showcase important investments in scientific research, NHLBI will feature lectures throughout the year from prominent thought leaders representing areas of high scientific priority in heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders.

United Therapeutics Corporation (NASDAQ: UTHR) and SteadyMed Ltd. (NASDAQ: STDY) announced today the signing of a definitive merger agreement under which United Therapeutics will acquire SteadyMed for $4.46 per share in cash at closing and an additional $2.63 per share in cash upon the achievement of a milestone related to the commercialization of Trevyent®. The transaction, including the $75 million in contingent consideration, is valued at $216 million.

The real world isn’t like Hollywood. Despite what we might see in TV shows like 24 or movies like Contagion, we don’t have teams of experts ready to spring into action at the first signs of a global outbreak.

But we should, philanthropist Bill Gates emphasized during his Shattuck Lecture for the Massachusetts Medical Society today. And Gates is ready to put up $12 million to help us get there.

Illumina announced on Thursday that it has selected five new startups for its accelerator program, which is now in its seventh funding cycle.

New technology is bringing the power of augmented reality into clinical practice. The system, called ProjectDR, shows clinicians 3D medical images such as CT scans and MRI data, projected directly on a patient’s skin.

An immunotherapy treatment — one that boosts the immune system — has improved survival in people newly diagnosed with the most common form of lung cancer (advanced non–small-cell lung cancer), according to an open-access study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Gubernatorial candidate Ben Jealous organized a meeting on Thursday that gave executives from Google and parent company Alphabet a chance to hear about technology in Baltimore and Prince George’s County.

Real-World Evidence (RWE) holds out the promise of reducing time and costs of product approvals, identifying new uses for existing products, increasing our ability to treat rare diseases, and improving clinical practices for using drugs and medical devices. The 21st Century Cures Act, enacted in 2016, requires FDA to evaluate the use of RWE in approving new drug indications. FDA in 2017 issued a final guidance document regarding RWE in regulatory decisions involving medical devices. The private sector is also focusing on RWE: more than half the pharmaceutical companies in a recent survey say they are significantly expanding their involvement in RWE. Nonetheless, misunderstandings and uncertainties remain, both about what constitutes RWE and its potential role in regulatory and other aspects of precision medicine.

Women and minorities are sparsely represented in our recent fundings. So what do we do about that?

As a business owner, I’m often asked to speak to groups about my entrepreneurial journey. One component of my talk involves the importance of long-term thinking. Too often, businesses and politicians fall into the trap of short-term thinking. They focus on making a profit this quarter or succeeding in their re-election campaign without considering the impact of their decisions five, 10 or 20 years down the road.