Company news

Ohio-based Cardinal Health Inc. wants to open a $14.4 million drug-production facility that would employ 85 workers by 2017. A Cardinal subsidiary, Cardinal Health 414 LLC, produces a cancer treatment locally at a compounding center on Georgetown Road. The Indianapolis Department of Metropolitan Development said Cardinal wants to expand production of the medication by opening a second facility in an existing 64,000-square-foot warehouse at 4343 W. 62nd St. If the project goes forward locally, the company said it would spend $11.5 million to make the building suitable for pharmaceutical production and another $2.9 million in manufacturing and research equipment for the facility. Cardinal wants a tax abatement valued at $690,297 over 10 years. During that time, the company still would pay $648,169 in property taxes.

Consolidated Insurance Services Inc. has merged with Shepherd Insurance, creating an insurance agency with eight Indiana offices, 145 agents and more than 160 employees. Consolidated will now operate as Consolidated Shepherd Insurance, while Shepherd will maintain its name. Shepherd is based in Carmel and has offices in Noblesville, Greenfield, Columbus, Evansville and Seymour. The agency, which in recent years has bulked up its presence in health insurance, was founded in 1977 by Dave Shepherd, who won Indiana's Mr. Basketball award in 1970 while at Carmel High School. Consolidated, founded in 1932, is led by Rex Early, the former Republican state chairman and gubernatorial candidate.

Eli Lilly and Co. and a partner drugmaker won tentative regulatory approval for a once-a-day insulin that will compete with Lantus, the blockbuster insulin made by France-based Sanofi SA. Called Basaglar, the drug is approved for adults with type 2 diabetes and in combination with mealtime insulin for adults and children with type 1 diabetes. Lilly co-developed the drug with Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH. The approval is tentative because of a claim of patent infringement filed by Sanofi. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cannot give final approval of Basaglar until mid-2016, unless courts find in favor of Lilly earlier.

Eli Lilly and Co. will submit its experimental psoriasis drug for regulatory approval after the medicine helped six times as many patients participating in clinical trials completely clear up their skin irritations as an existing treatment. Lilly’s drug, ixekizumab, is in a race with two others to be first in a new class of psoriasis treatments to reach the market. Lilly expects to submit the drug to regulators—most likely in the United States, Europe and Japan—in the first half of 2015. The commercial prospects for ixekizumab are uncertain. Before Thursday’s announcements, Wall Street analysts expected the drug to fall short of $1 billion in annual sales by 2020. Switzerland-based Novartis AG already has submitted its drug for psoriasis to the FDA, and expects a decision as early as year’s end. California-based Amgen Inc. has partnered with United Kingdom-based Astra Zeneca plc on a new drug for psoriasis, but they have yet to complete late-stage testing.