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Eli Lilly and Co. has sued Roche Holding AG’s Genentech unit, asking a court to invalidate patents used to make treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases, Bloomberg News reported. Lilly wants a court to reaffirm the patents behind its own cancer drug Erbitux. According to Lilly’s lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco, Genentech deceived the U.S. Patent Office into issuing patents known as “Cabilly” after one of the inventors. Genentech claims that the process and certain starting materials used to produce Erbitux infringe on parts of the patents, and is pursuing an “aggressive litigation policy to protect its products against competition,” according to the complaint. Erbitux, made by Indianapolis-based Lilly’s ImClone unit, is approved in the United States to treat colon cancer and head and neck tumors. Lilly realized about $400 million in revenue from the drug in 2012. A phone call to Genentech’s media office seeking comment about the lawsuit wasn’t immediately returned.

Indianapolis-based CHV Capital joined Kaiser Permanente Ventures to invest an $8 million funding round for Health Catalyst, a Salt Lake City-based data warehousing company. The company already had raised $33 million in Series B funding to develop its technology, which helps hospitals measure quality data from their electronic medical record systems and report it to regulatory agencies and health insurers. Indiana University Health, the hospital system that is the parent of CHV Capital, already is using Health Catalyst’s technology.

The Indiana Senate voted last week to expand Medicaid using the state-run Healthy Indiana Plan. According to the Associated Press, Gov. Mike Pence and the Republican-led General Assembly have beat back efforts by Democrats to expand coverage using the traditional federal-state Medicaid program for the poor. Instead, they say, expansion should be done through the Healthy Indiana Plan or a similar state-run program, giving the state more control over costs. Expanding HIP would cost the state roughly 3 percent less than expanding Medicaid, state actuary Milliman Inc. estimated on Feb. 25. And supporters say HIP would promote more responsible decisions by enrollees. On the table is an expected $10.5 billion in federal aid for the state over the next seven years. But expanding HIP also could cost the state close to $2 billion over the period. House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said Tuesday that Pence likes the Senate's request for block grants from the federal government instead of matching funds for Indiana’s spending, as is the case with traditional Medicaid. "At least the leadership is all in favor of not using Medicaid expansion as the vehicle here because of the potential for massive cost in the future," Bosma said. Seven Democratic senators voted with all of the chamber's Republicans for the expansion, despite reservations about using HIP. "We don't agree with the bill the way it was written, but we want to make sure it remains alive," said Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage. Tallian asked lawmakers to approve a temporary expansion of Medicaid, for two years, similar to what Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, is supporting. But her amendment and similar efforts in the House failed.

Warsaw-based Zimmer Holdings Inc. said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice have ended their investigation into a possible violation by Zimmer of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The investigation dates to September 2007. Zimmer is the world’s largest maker of orthopedic implants.

The National Science Foundation has awarded $500,000 to West Lafayette-based Tymora Analytical Operations LLC via a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant. Tymora will use the two-year grant to develop a technology called pIMAGO that helps lab researchers identify new targets for drugs to fight such diseases as cancer, diabetes, neurological disorders and immune system disorders. Tymora, founded by two Purdue University professors, has also received $450,000 in previous grants from the National Institutes of Health.

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Diagnotes LLC, an Indianapolis-based developer of health care software, won the inaugural Hoosier Healthcare Innovation Challenge held by the economic development group Develop Indy. Diagnotes and two other finalists, CreateIT and Freedom Solutions, presented product demonstrations at the annual conference of the Indiana Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Diagnotes’ On Call software, which delivers patient medical records to smartphones of an on-call doctor, won $5,000 for taking first place. Diagnotes also won the business competition that was part of the Indiana Life Sciences Summit, staged by Indianapolis-based BioCrossroads, in October.

In a bid to compete for cancer patients with Indiana University Health and St. Vincent Health, Community Health Network will make its North and East hospitals affiliates of the University of Texas’ MD Anderson Cancer Center. MD Anderson, one of the best-known treatment centers for cancer, will certify the cancer physicians at the two hospitals and give Community access to the evidence-based treatment and follow-up plans developed by MD Anderson. “This is a game changer for our network,” Bryan Mills, CEO of Indianapolis-based Community Health Network, said in a prepared statement.  “Professionals in the medical field know the MD Anderson name very well, as it’s the gold standard for cancer care.” Community also plans to seek MD Anderson Cancer Network certification at its hospitals in Anderson, Kokomo and on the south side of Indianapolis.

Advantage Health Solutions Inc. suffered a security breach that potentially affects members of the Franciscan Alliance accountable care organization. The breach occurred Oct. 19 when a subcontractor of Indianapolis-based Advantage mailed generic health questionnaires to 2,575 beneficiaries with individual identification numbers inadvertently displayed. No personal health or financial information was disclosed. Advantage, which provides care management and data services for the Franciscan ACO, said it is offering free credit monitoring to all members of the health plan.

West Lafayette-based Tymora Analytical Operations LLC received $300,000 from the National Institutes of Health to help it develop technology to help researchers develop drugs to treat cancer and diabetes, as well as immune and neurological disorders. The company’s technology, called PolyMAC, is based on research by Andy Tao, a Purdue University professor of biochemistry. Tymora received a $150,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health this year, and has also received a $150,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. All the grants are part of the federal government's Small Business Innovation Research, or SBIR, program.

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Indianapolis-based St. Vincent Health will manage operations at Monroe Hospital in Bloomington under an agreement announced Sept. 4. Adding Monroe gives St. Vincent control of hospitals stretching from Indianapolis to Bedford and even farther south to Salem and Evansville. St. Vincent owns or operates 22 hospitals around the state. The only other Indiana hospital with that kind of geographic reach is Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health, which owns Bloomington Hospital. St. Vincent will oversee quality and safety efforts, physician relations, patient experience, finance and other functions to increase efficiency and reduce costs. The 32-bed facility, which opened in 2006, is owned by Alabama-based Medical Properties Trust Inc. Monroe has routinely lost money, including a loss of $13.2 million in 2011, according to hospital reports to the federal Medicare program, made available by the website AHD.com. Monroe had total patient revenue last year of $102.4 million. The hospital had been courting potential partners or buyers for at least two years. It entered discussions not only with St. Vincent, but also with Mishawaka-based Franciscan Alliance and Munster-based Community Healthcare System.

Nyhart Actuary & Employee Benefits has established its first office on the West Coast with its latest acquisition. Nyhart will add 15 employees by acquiring San Diego-based Epler Co., a regional actuarial, employee benefits and compensation-strategies firm. Nyhart now has 100 employees, including 70 at its headquarters in Indianapolis. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal gives Nyhart new expertise on employee compensation, which it hopes will help bolster its pension business for private, church and public plans. Nyhart serves plans with $15 billion or more in assets, providing fund analysis, advisory services on employee compensation and retirement benefits, and actuarial work on health care issues. It is the third acquisition Nyhart has made in the last two years.

Tymora Analytical Operations LLC has received a $150,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health. The West Lafayette-based company will use the money to develop nanotechnology products that aim to help researchers analyze the adding of phosphate molecules to proteins in the body, a process that plays a role in cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and other maladies. Tymora’s leading product would allow researchers to detect multiple changes to proteins in a single experiment. The 2-year-old company has been funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, an investment by Purdue’s Emerging Innovations Fund and winnings from business plan competitions.

Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health will now make its pediatric specialists available at The South Bend Clinic. Riley specialists in cardiology, diabetes, gastroenterology, neurology and rheumatology will see patients from throughout the northern Indiana and southern Michigan regions. Riley's hospital facility in downtown Indianapolis treats children from all over Indiana and beyond the state's borders.

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Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine may have found a way to predict who will develop Type 1 diabetes, according to a study published March 22 in the journal Diabetes. Dr. Raghu Mirmira and Sarah Tersey, both professors in the pediatric department of the IU medical school, reported that they had been able to identify problems in insulin-producing cells in mice before the mice actually developed symptoms of diabetes. They were also able to identify a protein in the mice that rises in level as insulin-producing cells become dysfunctional. Screening for that protein in blood tests could identify patients in the process of developing diabetes. Type 1 diabetes, also known as juvenile diabetes, occurs when the body’s immune system attacks insulin-producing cells in the pancreas.

Purdue University’s Emerging Innovations Fund invested $80,000 in Spensa Technologies Inc. and another $20,000 in Tymora Analytical Operations LLC. Both companies are based in the Purdue Research Park in West Lafayette. Spensa Technologies is commercializing the Z-Trap, which detects target insects captured by the trap and sends the data wirelessly to a farmer’s mobile phone or computer. Knowing the types of pests can help farmers select the correct pesticide and the right amount to apply. Tymora Analytical incorporates nanotechnology in laboratory products designed to make cancer research and drug discovery more efficient and effective.

European regulators approved an expanded use for the diabetes treatment Byetta developed by drugmakers Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Eli Lilly and Co., according to the Associated Press. The companies said Friday they received approval for Byetta to be used with or without common treatments like metformin and Actos to treat adult Type 2 diabetes patients who have not been able to control their blood sugar levels with just insulin. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the same expanded use last fall. Byetta, or exenatide, is a twice-a-day injection. It was first approved in Europe in 2006. Amylin and Lilly announced in November that they are ending their collaboration on Byetta and its successor, Bydureon, which is designed to be taken once per week. The two companies have already ended their partnership in the United States, and Amylin will take over marketing of Byetta outside the U.S. by the end of 2013.

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