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Karen DeSalvo, Google's chief health officer, attended Google's annual health screening event.
katie jennings
GWoogle's chief health officer Karen DeSalvo At the tech giant's annual health event on Tuesday, he spoke of an “inflection point in AI where we see the potential for AI to transform health on a global scale.”
One of the applications of the future? An AI-powered health coach comes to you fit bit. The company is building what it calls “personal health.” large language modelThere is one big caveat. Bots should not be considered medical advice. This was a consistent theme throughout the event, as Google continued to reinforce the idea that its AI tools are not making medical decisions. “It's clear that AI will replace doctors in the future, but doctors who use AI will replace doctors who don't use AI,” DeSalvo said.
Fitbit models are built on gemini (Google's competitor LLM, which rivals OpenAI's GPT), says it has been fine-tuned based on “a large amount of health signals from high-quality research case studies.” Florence Tung, Product Director at Fitbit. AI Coach will be available “later this year” for testing on a limited group of Android users and will be “based on sleep schedules, exercise intensity, changes in heart rate variability, and resting heart rate patterns.” The company said it will provide “customized insights.” hey. The feature is “in no way intended to replace a doctor,” Thng said. “It is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition.”
Why Epic, the $4.6 billion medical record giant, is betting big on generative AI
Epic Founder and CEO Judy Faulkner at our Verona, Wisconsin headquarters in 2021.
Jamel Toppin writes for Forbes
Epic, led by billionaire founder and CEO Judy Faulkner, is building a suite of 60 AI tools that it hopes to sell to thousands of hospitals in the United States. In May, the company plans to release a coding assistant using GPT-4 to assist with medical billing. “We're not going to completely replace programmers with his AI system,” said Debbie Beall, who supervises coding at Houston Methodist University and was one of the dozen or so people who first tested Epic's prototype. ” he said. forbes. But what about common procedures performed multiple times a day in hospitals, such as X-rays and electrocardiograms? “Yes, AI Engine can do that.”
Please see here for the detail.
Pipeline and deal updates
M&A: Last week, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca announced it would acquire endocrine disease biotech company Amylot Pharma in a deal worth up to $1.05 billion, and this week announced it would acquire radiopharmaceutical company Fusion in a deal worth about $2.4 billion. .
Neuroscience: Engrail Therapeutics, a company developing new treatments for neurological problems such as anxiety and depression, announced it has raised $157 million in a Series B round to advance clinical development of its drug candidates.
Antibody drug conjugate: Tubulis, which is developing a pipeline of antibody-drug conjugates, announced that it has raised $138.8 million in a Series B2 round co-led by Nextech Invest and EQT Life Sciences.
Liver disease: The FDA has approved resmetilom, sold by Madrigal Pharmaceuticals as Rezdifla, as a first-line treatment for advanced nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
Cell engineering: Portal Biotechnologies was founded as follows. forbes Under 30 alum Armon Chalay announced that he has raised $5 million in a pre-seed round led by Pear VC.
Clinical trial: Clinical research startup Pi Health announced it has raised $30 million in a Series A round to accelerate the commercialization of its platform aimed at increasing enrollment in cancer clinical trials.
Immunotherapy: Clasp Therapeutics, which aims to develop T-cell engagers for oncology, this week launched a $150 million funding round co-led by Novo Holdings, Third Rock Ventures, and Catalio Capital Management.
RNA: Capstan Therapeutics, a developer of RNA therapies, announced it has raised $175 million in a Series B round to advance its CAR-T cell candidates and further develop its pipeline for autoimmune diseases.
This startup is one step closer to manufacturing drugs in space
Artist's rendering of the Varda spacecraft in orbit.
varda space industry
California-based Varda Space has successfully crystallized ritonavir, a type of HIV treatment, while in orbit on an autonomous spacecraft and safely returned it to Earth, marking the company's first mission in space. This paved the way for the start of manufacturing key pharmaceutical ingredients.
Why did you want to create medicine in space? Interestingly, the microgravity environment provides an opportunity to better crystallize active pharmaceutical ingredients, allowing for the production of higher quality medicines or the possibility of injecting medicines that currently require intravenous drips.
Please see here for the detail.
Other healthcare news
of environmental protection agency Asbestos was banned this week, making the United States one of the last Western countries to outlaw the cancer-causing chemical.
president joe biden signed an executive order this week to expand women's health research with a $200 million multi-agency investment.
walgreens boots alliance is consolidating its distribution network and will close distribution centers in Florida and Connecticut.
opil, The first over-the-counter contraceptive in the United States goes on sale this week and will be free to Medicaid recipients in Wisconsin.
beyond forbes
Trump could have easily avoided a $540 million cash shortfall
Revenge of the bootstrapped startup
Pentagon kills key technology program, dealing blow to Silicon Valley's defense ambitions
what else are you reading
AI-generated nonsense leaked to scientific journals (Popular Science)
Medicare will soon negotiate prices for obesity drugs, new analysis predicts (STAT)
Bayer's reorganization deals a blow to the pharmaceutical company's management team, with about half of executives transferred from the top team (Endpoint)
