Company news

Eli Lilly and Co.’s shares have risen more than 5 percent this month—and more than 20 percent so far this year—as its pipeline has delivered a string of positive results. This month alone, the Indianapolis-based drugmaker has reported positive results from clinical trials of four experimental drugs. And next month, Lilly will release more data on its experimental Alzheimer’s drug that could show more clearly whether it alters the memory-sapping disease—something no other drug has been able to do. Many of the successes are coming from Lilly’s Bio-Medicines unit—the division that used to handle Lilly’s most lucrative products, such as Zyprexa and Cymbalta, before patents on those $5 billion-a-year drugs expired. That’s also the unit that has had most of Lilly’s high-profile failures in experimental drugs, including two other Alzheimer’s drugs, medicines aimed at multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, and a Zyprexa-like drug that was supposed to have fewer side effects.

Batesville-based Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. has agreed to buy New York-based Welch Allyn Inc. for $2.05 billion, according to Bloomberg News. The acquisition lets Hill-Rom, a maker of hospital beds and supplies for wound care and respiratory health, deepen its presence in diagnostic supplies for physicians and emergency responders. Hill-Rom said the transaction will reduce annual costs by $40 million by 2018. The combined companies expect to generate more than $500 million a year in adjusted earnings. Hill-Rom said it will keep a “substantial presence” in Skaneateles Falls, New York, where Welch Allyn is based, and in Tijuana, Mexico, where the acquired firm has operations.

St. Vincent Health has opened a Saturday walk-in pediatric clinic at the St. Vincent Fishers Hospital, providing immediate care and sports physicals. St. Vincent Fishers began in 2008 as a free-standing emergency room and expanded in 2013 to include 40 inpatient beds and 10 observation beds.

VibroniX Inc. in West Lafayette has received a grant worth $212,978 from the National Institutes of Health to develop technology invented at Purdue University to distinguish between cancer tissue and normal tissue based on the intensity of a sound wave created after the absorption of near-infrared light. Pu Wang, chief technology officer of Vibronix, said the company’s technology could be used to quantify the aggressiveness of prostate cancer.