Company news

There’s a leadership change in progress at Prosolia Inc., an Indianapolis company launched out of Purdue University in 2004. Veteran life sciences entrepreneur Peter Kissinger has stepped down as interim CEO and will be replaced by Prosolia’s research director, Justin Wiseman. Wiseman also will fill the role of president, which was vacated by the recent departure of Kevin Boscacci. The company said Boscacci, who helped launched Prosolia as an MBA student at Purdue, left “to pursue other opportunities.” Prosolia’s technology helps measure mass and therefore identify large, complex molecules for pharmaceutical and other industries.

California-based life sciences firm Beckman Coulter Inc. is planning its third local expansion since 2007, investing $18.2 million in its Indianapolis operation and adding as many as 95 jobs here in the next three years. Beckman Coulter, which makes biomedical testing equipment, plans to begin hiring manufacturing associates immediately for its facilities at 5355 W. 76th St. and 5550 Lakeview Parkway. It also will add employees in field service, engineering and general business roles.

Purdue University and Bloomington-based Cook Biotech Inc. prevailed in a European patent dispute over a tissue graft. Denmark-based ScanVet, which distributes the Acell Vet graft, has now run out of time to appeal previous decisions in favor of Purdue by the Danish patent office and patent appeals board. The patent lies behind some of the Cook Biotech products manufactured at the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette. The grafts are used to heal wounds and as implants in surgical procedures.

Centerstone Research Institute in Bloomington won a four-year, $2 million grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. The grant will fund improved health care services for 250 adults who have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness by expanding primary health care and Centerstone of Indiana’s Bloomington clinic. The project is designed to give individuals who have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness broader access to a team of primary care doctors and nurses, as well as mental health staff.