Company news

Eli Lilly and Co. plans to seek regulatory approval early next year for a new once-a-day insulin after the diabetes treatment fared better than the blockbuster drug Lantus in two late-stage clinical studies. According to the Associated Press, Lilly’s drug peglispro produced statistically significant lower blood sugar levels in Type 1 diabetes patients when compared to people who took Lantus, which garnered $7.8 billion in sales last year for France-based Sanofi SA. Peglispro is a basal or background insulin that patients with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes can take along with shorter-acting mealtime insulin to help keep blood sugar levels stable.

St. Vincent Health wants to build a $14 million sports performance facility for serious athletes at Indy Cycloplex, a city park that includes the Major Taylor Velodrome cycling track. St. Vincent’s proposal is one idea being discussed with Marian University, which has a contract to manage the park for the city, and four amateur sports groups: Indiana Sports Corp, Play Ball Indiana, USA Football and USA Track & Field. St. Vincent’s idea, if accepted, could become reality as early as 2017. While no firm plans are in place, the groups are likely to discuss the possibility of relocating their offices or some of their operations to the site to create an “amateur sports community,” officials said. The four sports groups are all based in Indianapolis, but are spread around the city. Facilities for research, training, sports safety and performance are among the possible development options on the table in the hope they could attract other sports-governing bodies to Indianapolis. Another possibility for the site is a youth sports park.

Just three months before the parent company of AIT Laboratories was sold in 2009 to its employees for $90 million, it was appraised for less than one-fifth as much, according to a lawsuit filed Aug. 29 by the U.S. Department of Labor. That sudden swing in value is why the federal government has sued AIT founder Michael Evans and the bank he hired to help sell AIT, alleging they breached their fiduciary duties. The suit, filed in federal court in Indianapolis, asks the court to force Evans and Louisville-based PBI Bank to give back any gains they made from the sale. Evans, 70, owned nearly 88 percent of AIT when it was sold to an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP, according to the lawsuit. Evans did not cash out that entire stake immediately when the sale was made, but instead was to be paid over time as AIT employees made contributions to the ESOP, which functions as their company retirement plan. The lawsuit claims Evans has been paid $16.3 million. It's not clear from the suit how much more he might be in line to collect. The complaint notes that in 2013, a period when AIT was under severe financial pressure, a recapitalization resulted in Evans, who had helped finance the buyout, receiving a 90-percent stake in AIT. Meanwhile, the ESOP's stake shrank from 100 percent to 10 percent.