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Warsaw-based Biomet Inc. has offered to buy the trauma products business of DePuy Orthopaedics Inc. for $280 million in cash. DePuy, a unit of New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson since 1998, also is based in Warsaw. Biomet, which designs and manufactures orthopedic products for surgical and non-surgical uses, said the deal would greatly expand its sports, extremities and trauma business. DePuy makes artificial joints and other orthopedic devices. J&J is attempting to spin off DePuy’s trauma products business as it seeks to finalize its planned $21.3 billion acquisition of Swiss medical device maker Synthes Inc. The European Commission opened an expanded probe last November of J&J's bid to buy Synthes in a deal that would make J&J the leader in the $5.5 billion trauma device market. The Brussels-based regulator is expected to rule on the acquisition by April 26. Biomet’s offer to DePuy expires June 1 but could be extended under certain circumstances.

Carmel-based CNO Financial Group Inc. has agreed to pay $9.9 million to settle allegations by regulators in four states that its Bankers Life subsidiary acted as an investment adviser and broker-dealer without proper licensing. Bankers Life sells a mix of life insurance, annuities and Medicare supplement policies to middle-income earners near or in retirement. It has 1.3 million policyholders across the U.S. and 5,600 agents in 250 U.S. locations. CNO Financial will take a $10 million first-quarter charge related to the settlement, which calls for CNO to make payments to the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Missouri and also cover "certain costs of the investigation." An audit revealed Bankers Life was operating in some states where it was not licensed by affiliating with licensed brokers and then steering customers into its annuity products, Maine's Office of Securities said in a statement to Reuters. CNO agreed to surrender the license for its broker-dealer subsidiary, BLC Financial Services Inc, to both the SEC and regulators in Illinois, where it is based. Financial advisers working for independent broker dealers will continue to sell Bankers Life products in the settlement states.

Nyhart, an actuarial and benefits consulting firm, has opened an office in St. Louis, its third expansion in 15 months. In 2011, Nyhart merged with an Atlanta public pension firm and prior to that acquired a business group in Kansas City, Mo. Nyhart has more than 1,000 clients in 48 states, managing $14 billion in pension plan assets. Heath Merlak, an actuary at Nyhart, will head up the new office.

Arizona-based Synergy HomeCare has established a new franchise in Indianapolis. Owners George and Denise Wright will provide 24-hour non-medical care to residents in Indianapolis, Carmel and Fishers. The company typically serves the elderly, those who are recovering from significant surgery and sickness, and new mothers. The new franchise has 10 caregivers but hopes to expand to 25. Synergy HomeCare now has 138 franchises in 37 states.

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Indianapolis-area mergers and acquisitions in 2011

A number of acquisitions last year disclosed no sale price. In the Indianapolis area, those deals ranged from MacAllister Machinery’s purchase of a Caterpillar dealership in Michigan to Herff Jones’ acquisition of a Memphis, Tenn.-headquartered maker of cheerleading uniforms.

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Company news

Eli Lilly and Co. is getting into orthopedics. The Indianapolis-based drugmaker signed a deal with Swiss company Synthes Inc. to co-promote the bone drug Forteo to orthopedic surgeons and to license some experimental drugs to Synthes. The companies also will team up to study an additional use for Forteo in fracture healing. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Synthes specializes in developing and selling instruments, implants and biomaterials to fix bone and soft tissues. It has agreed to sell itself to New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson for $21 billion. In a separate development, Lilly won the first round in a court battle with another development partner, San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. A federal judge rejected Amylin’s claim that, if Lilly uses the same sales force to sell Byetta, a diabetes medicine made by Amylin, and Tradjenta, a diabetes pill made by Germany-based Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, it would be anti-competitive. Amylin promised to appeal.

Three weeks after the CEO of Riley Hospital for Children resigned, his right-hand man announced his departure, too. Brett D. Lee, the chief operating officer at Riley, announced his plans June 8 to leave the Indianapolis hospital for a new job in Atlanta. His last day will be July 6. It’s not clear if Lee’s departure is connected to the May 20 resignation of Dan Fink, who had been CEO of Riley for about two years. Fink was replaced as CEO on an interim basis by Marilyn Cox, Riley’s chief nursing officer. Lee was considered a rising star at Riley, which is part of the Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health hospital system. Less than a year after being hired by Riley in April 2010, Lee was named the young health care executive of the year by the American College of Healthcare Executives, in part for his work applying Six Sigma and lean-process methods to the health care environment. Lee will become senior vice president of clinical operations at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, the nation’s largest provider of pediatric care. It has three free-standing hospitals, with a total of 520 beds, as well as 17 outpatient facilities throughout the Atlanta metro area.

Carmel-based Woll Enterprises Inc. has won a contract to commercialize three medical products invented by two Florida physicians. Dr. Nevenka Horvat and Dr. Branimir Horvat, of Sarasota, Fla., have developed a medication for relief from psoriasis and eczema; a placental blood extractor; and a sequential lymphedema pump for removing excess fluid from swollen limbs. Woll Enterprises will try to locate funding to move the products toward market approval.
 
Dow AgroSciences LLC announced a deal to purchase assets from Iowa-based Sansgaard Seed Farms Inc. Indianapolis-based Dow Agro will receive rights to Sansaard’s Praide Brand Seed brand, as well as other marketing assets, land, buildings and equipment. Sansgaard’s Iowa headquarters and staff will remain intact. But now Dow Agro will market its corn and soybean seeds under the Prairie Brand name. Dow has made several acquisitions of seed distributors in the past three years to build a distribution network for its SmartStax genetically engineered seed, as well as future innovations, like its Enlist Weed Control System for corn and soybeans. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Nyhart, an Indianapolis-based actuarial and employee-benefits consulting firm, has acquired Atlanta-based Stanley, Holcombe & Associates, which focused on public pensions and defined-benefit retirement consulting. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. Nyhart will keep the existing Atlanta office space as well as retain the entire Atlanta staff. The deal gives Nyhart a base of retirement clients that have more than $14 billion in plan assets.In December, Nyhart announced the purchase of the Kansas City, Mo., operations of retirement consultancy Alliance Benefit Group.

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Company news

What would you do with $10 million? Indiana Health Information Technology Inc. wants to spend it to link
five medical records exchanges that operate separately around the state. The statewide organization received the money from
programs created by the federal stimulus bill. The group will link existing exchanges operated in and around Indianapolis,
Bloomington, Cincinnati, Fort Wayne and South Bend.

What’s this? A health insurance company trying to compete against Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in central Indiana?
Consumer Life Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Medical Mutual of Ohio, has opened an office in Carmel with
intentions to sell group and individual policies. Consumers Life, which operates primarily in southern and northeastern Indiana,
has been expanding its network of doctors and hospitals in an attempt to reach statewide. The company has negotiated rates
with 44 hospitals and 5,000 physicians, and now employs 13 at its Carmel office, with plans to add more. It intends to extend
its SuperMed provider network statewide by the end of 2010.

Attaboy, here’s another contract. The Indiana State Department of Health awarded a $434,000 contract to the University
of Indianapolis Center for Aging & Community to lead an initiative to reduce infections acquired in health care
facilities. The new Indiana Healthcare Associated Infection Initiative will target such things as infections acquired from
catheters that aren’t completely sterile or from side effects of antibiotic use. The 15-month Indiana program will begin
in July and include at least 80 hospitals, nursing homes and home-health agencies. The latest initiative is modeled on the
Indiana Pressure Ulcer Prevention Initiative, which UIndy also oversees under a state contract. The first round of the pressure
ulcer initiative involved more than 160 hospitals, long-term care centers and home-health care providers and decreased the
incidence of pressure ulcers by 30 percent.

St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers has acquired a six-doctor orthopedic surgery practice that operates
in St. Francis’ Mooresville hospital. Joint Replacement Surgeons of Indiana fully integrated with St.
Francis on Monday, the hospital system announced. The physician group will be called St. Francis Medical Group-Joint Replacement
Surgeons. The doctors will continue working out of the St. Francis-Mooresville campus and the St. Vincent Indianapolis
Hospital campus on West 86th Street.

Eli Lilly and Co. paid $50 million for exclusive rights from Acrux Ltd. to an underarm testosterone lotion
called Axiron for men with limited sex drive due to low levels of the hormone, according to Bloomberg News. Indianapolis-based
Lilly will also pay Acrux, based in West Melbourne, Australia, $3 million when manufacturing assets are transferred. Acrux
may earn $87 million more if U.S. regulators approve the drug for sale, an additional $195 million in commercial milestone
payments, and royalty payments on future sales.

Clarian Health is expanding its LifeLine Critical Care Transport service to Lafayette and Muncie, making
its Clarian Arnett and Ball Memorial Hospital into regional centers for critical care. When the new cities come online in
July, LifeLine will operate from six bases. Its other locations are in Indianapolis, Columbus, Kokomo and Terre Haute. Each
LifeLine team includes a pilot, nurse, and a flight paramedic or respiratory therapist, depending on the needs of the patient
being transported. LifeLine conducts more than 1,500 flights annually.

Indianapolis-based Nyhart Co. has acquired ASAP Flex Plans, a 7-year-old firm that helps
smaller employers administer employee flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, health reimbursement accounts and
COBRA benefits. ASAP owner John Baird will join Nyhart as a consultant, spearheading a rollout of new flexible spending accounts
by year’s end. ASAP’s 150 clients will be served under the Nyhart name.

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