Top of the News:

The new MRI protocol that Philips and the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research are collaborating on can run an MRI on a patient in under one minute.

POLITICS:

The Oversight Committee and Energy and Commerce Committee are gearing up to investigate both the FDA and biotechnology company Biogen Inc. over the FDA’s approval of Biogen’s controversial Alzheimer’s treatment Aduhelm, Biopharma Dive reports.

SOCIAL:

A study by the International Institute of Population Sciences confirmed that many states in India risk experiencing high levels of COVID-19 infections due to improper biomedical waste disposal, Sunday Guardian Live writes.

In a study conducted by the CDC, roughly 53% of respondents reported displaying symptoms of a mental health disorder, Medpage Today reports. The study reflects just how the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected those in the public health sector.

ENVIRONMENT:

DuPont Medical Packaging outlined its sustainability goals for World Sustainability Day, Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry reports.

Professional Development:

What you can’t do: fix your employees’ existential crisis. What you can do: help alleviate it. Harvard Business Review has some tips on how to do so.

ECONOMIC:

Biopharmaceutical company Polyphor announced in a statement that it’s considering its future after the failure of its cancer treatment, balixafortide, in a Phase III clinical trial, Endpoints writes.

Mergers and acquisitions within the medtech and biotech fields are expected to have a strong second quarter, despite the Federal Trade Commission announcing in March of this year that they would change how they would regulate mergers and acquisitions within the industry, Fierce Pharma reports.

TECHNOLOGY:

Some states in the U.S. aren’t establishing a digital COVID-19 vaccine verification system, leading to some confusion, AP News reports.

A meta-analysis found that abdominal pelvic surgeries that were performed by a robot took longer and cost more than abdominal pelvic surgeries done by open surgery or laparoscopy, Medtech Dive writes. The meta-analysis also found no major differences in quality or outcomes between the methods but stated that robotic platforms could be refined over time to cut costs and procedure length.

LEGAL:

Johnson & Johnson will pay roughly $230 million to settle a lawsuit with New York state that alleges the company used intensive marketing tactics to sell opioid painkillers to doctors while downplaying their addictive effects, Forbes reports. The money will go into a state settlement fund.

 Another win for patents: The Supreme Court preserved assignor estoppel—essentially saying that inventors who sell patent rights can’t say that they’re invalid afterwards—in Minerva Surgical v. Hologic, Medical Design and Outsourcing writes