Company news

Bedford Regional Medical Center will receive a $46.8 million community facility direct loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to construct a new critical access hospital, according to an announcement from U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar’s office. Bedford Regional is owned by Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health, and is one of two hospitals in the southern Indiana town.

Indiana University Health ranked as the fourth-busiest transplant center in the nation, according to new data from the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. The Indianapolis-based hospital network performed 500 organ transplants last year, an uptick from 483 transplants in 2009. In three categories—intestine, pancreas and kidney-pancreas—IU Health ranked No. 1in the nation for volume of transplants. IU Health also ranked third in abdominal organ transplants, sixth in liver transplants, and ninth in kidney transplants. IU Health, formerly known as Clarian Health, has ranked as one of the nation’s top 10 busiest transplant centers since 2003.

A proposal that would have weakened Eli Lilly and Co.’s defenses against an unwanted takeover failed to pass April 18 despite a large majority of shareholders voting to remove those barriers for the second straight year. At the drugmaker’s annual shareholders meeting at its Indianapolis headquarters, 84.7 percent of the votes cast called for removing several provisions designed to prevent a hostile takeover of the company. However, Lilly’s bylaws require approval from 80 percent of all shares—whether voted or not—before removing the provisions. By that standard, only 72.6 percent of shares were voted in favor of removal. The vote tallies were nearly identical to those at last year’s meeting. For the past 25 years, Lilly has required the approval of 80 percent of the shareholders not only to approve hostile takeovers, but also to enact measures used to achieve them, such as removing directors before their terms end or expanding the size of the board. If the proposal had passed, such measures could have been approved by a bare majority of shareholders.