NIH Awards Inova Health System $1.5 Million Contract for Lung Disease Program

Dual Program to Focus on Developing New Medications for Diseases

Falls Church, VA – (November 13, 2007) – Inova Health System’s Pulmonary Vascular Program has entered into a $1.5 million contract with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in an effort to establish a new combined Advanced Lung Disease Program. The goal of the program is to establish a center of excellence at two campuses for the treatment of patients with pulmonary hypertension and other forms of advanced lung diseases, and to offer cutting-edge therapies aimed at reversing the primary disease processes that affect patients with advanced lung disease.

“This prestigious collaboration between Inova Health System and the NIH is a sterling example of how today’s leading clinicians and researchers can forge partnerships to bring innovative patient-care solutions from the bench to the bedside,” said Steven Nathan, MD, medical director, Advanced Lung Disease Program, Inova Heart and Vascular Institute. “This contract will enable us provide to a tremendous service to our patients and to the wider medical community as we develop new insights and therapies for treating pulmonary hypertension and other forms of advanced lung disease.”

As part of the partnership, clinical researchers will work with pulmonary hypertension patients at both Inova Fairfax Hospital and the NIH campus conducting assessments, establishing multiple clinical trials, and giving patients access to ground-breaking research and treatment. The joint program will also provide for collaborative conferences between the two campuses as well as fellowship training for physicians.

According to the American Heart Association, pulmonary hypertension is a disease that impedes the heart’s ability to pump blood through the lungs, resulting in an inadequate supply of oxygen and nutrients reaching the body’s organs. The high pressure within the lungs can lead to pulmonary vascular disease, in which the vessel walls become thick in response to the high pressure. Pulmonary hypertension may be due to a number of different causes, such as lupus, congenital heart defects, blood clots, or the use of certain appetite suppressants. Between 100,000 and 200,000 people are affected by pulmonary hypertension worldwide.

For more information about clinical trials, call 703-776-2580, or visit Inova online at
www.inova.org/research.