In today’s Bulldog tech and life science wrapup of news impacting the Triangle:

  • Nevada lawmaker seeks precautionary ban on human microchips
  • Delta adds 2 more nonstop flights from RDU
  • Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina CEO retiring
  • Britain: 65 percent of large companies suffered cyberattacks
  • Lawmakers question pricing of drug for genetic disease

The details:

  • Nevada lawmaker seeks precautionary ban on human microchips

Computer chips that store personal information and could be used to pinpoint someone’s location could not be implanted in humans without consent under a bill Nevada state lawmakers weighed on Monday.

Lawmakers on a judicial panel considered whether Nevada should join at least four other states in banning mandatory identification markers in people as a precaution to keep the emerging technology from creeping into workplaces, prisons or hospitals.

Republican Sen. Becky Harris of Las Vegas, sponsor of the legislation, said she’s worried computer chips could pose serious risks to human rights and public health.

“This is a completely new issue,” Harris said. “I just want a safety measure in place until we better understand the technology and the reasoning behind people’s desire to require implanting chips.”

ACLU of Nevada Policy Director Holly Welborn said there’s no impending need to protect people against mandatory microchipping, but there’s no question the technology would violate rights to personal autonomy and privacy.

  • Delta adds 2 more nonstop flights from RDU

Delta Air Lines will add two daily round-trip flights from the Raleigh-Durham International Airport to Nashville International Airport on June 12, part of a broader expansion at RDU that includes a new nonstop flight to Paris last year, according to The News and Observer.

Read more at:

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/#storylink=cpy

  • Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina CEO retiring

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina President and Chief Executive Brad Wilson announced Monday that he plans to retire from the company later this year.

“Now is a good time to transition leadership to the next CEO, one who will lead Blue Cross through the next wave of health care reform just as I have been fortunate to do for the last seven years,” Wilson said in a statement.

Read more at:

http://www.wral.com/blue-cross-ceo-to-step-down/16527092/

  • Britain: 65 percent of large companies suffered cyberattacks

Britain’s treasury chief has warned that cyberattacks are increasing in severity and sophistication as authorities open a new center devoted to thwarting such threats.

Philip Hammond has urged businesses to “sharpen” their approach as the attacks intensify.

Hammond says 65 percent of large businesses have reported a cyber breach or attack in the past 12 months — but that many businesses don’t have plans in the event of a breach.

The new center’s technical director, Ian Levy, says the government will act as “a guinea pig for all the measures we want to see done by industry at national scale.” The government underpinned the new facility with a 1.9 billion pound ($2.3 billion) cash injection.

Queen Elizabeth II will open the new facility in central London on Tuesday.

  • Lawmakers question pricing of drug for genetic disease

Two congressional lawmakers are asking Marathon Pharmaceuticals for information related to its pricing of a drug to treat genetic muscle deterioration in about 15,000 Americans. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and congressman Elijah Cummings of Maryland say that Marathon Pharmaceuticals plans to charge $89,000 a year for a drug that’s widely available abroad for about $1,000 a year.

The company hasn’t responded to their criticism.