Indianapolis-area office buildings that lease a majority of their space to medical tenants boast a vacancy rate of 11.7 percent—about one-third lower than the citywide office vacancy rate, according to data compiled by Indianapolis-based brokerage Summit Realty Group. That’s because cost-conscious hospitals have leased more space in existing buildings, instead of building additional medical office […]
The award is actually less than a third of what Warsaw-based Zimmer was originally ordered to pay for infringing patents on a lavage device.
Shares of Warsaw-based orthopedic device maker Zimmer Holdings Inc. have doubled the performance of the S&P 500 so far this year.
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co., already the promoter of the leading anti-impotence pill Cialis, will now try to speed up development of a drug to treat premature ejaculation. Canada-based TVM Life Sciences Ventures VII, which manages funds supplied by Lilly, invested in Ixchelsis Ltd., a new company created in the United Kingdom to develop the experimental drug, which is called IX-01. The drug was originally discovered at a research facility in the United Kingdom operated by New York-based Pfizer Inc., the company that brought the anti-impotence pill Viagra to market. Lilly’s Chorus unit will oversee development of the drug to determine if its proposed concept of action appears to work. “TVM’s strategic relationship with Lilly enables its project-focused companies, like Ixchelsis, to reach clinical proof of concept efficiently and cost-effectively,” said Darren Carroll, Lilly’s vice president of corporate business development, in a prepared statement. If and when the drug’s proof-of-concept is verified, Lilly will have the option to acquire the drug for further development. Lilly and TVM estimate that as many as 30 percent of men worldwide suffer from premature ejaculation.
Warsaw-based Zimmer Holdings Inc., which lost a February trial against Stryker Corp. over a surgical device, was told to pay more than $228 million—three times the jury award plus other costs—and stop selling certain products. According to Bloomberg News, the increase in the jury award was appropriate because Zimmer intentionally infringed Stryker patents to build its business for pulsed lavage, a technique that removes damaged tissue and cleans bones during joint-replacement surgery, U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker said in an order issued Wednesday. He also ordered Zimmer to stop selling its Pulsavac Plus device. A federal jury in Grand Rapids, Mich., in February sided with Stryker and awarded $70 million in damages. The dispute is over devices that use pulsing liquid, such as water or saline solution, to loosen debris from a surgical site and remove it by suction. The $228 million figure is more than the second-quarter profit for either company. Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Stryker reported $213 million in earnings on sales of $2.2 billion. Zimmer, based in Warsaw, reported $152 million in earnings on $1.2 billion in sales.
Three months after the recall of its Zilver PTX stent to prop open peripheral arteries, Bloomington-based Cook Medical Inc. put the device back on the market around the globe, according to MassDevice.com, an industry trade publication. Cook voluntarily recalled the stents in April after getting reports of one patient death and one injury when the equipment that delivers the stent into patients broke off during surgery. In late May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration slapped its “deadly” warning on Cook’s recall of its stent, which props open arteries in the legs and arms to prevent serious blood clots. Millenium Research Group has estimated that Cook derives $2,750 from each Zilver stent it sells in the United States. Since it first hit foreign markets in 2009, the Zilver stent has been deployed in more than 30,000 patients, according to data from Cook. The Zilver, which is the first stent covered with an inflammation-reducing drug, was introduced to the U.S. market in December 2012. The Zilver recall did not affect stents that were already placed in patients.
The state’s medical-device companies are finding that they cannot pass on the new medical-device tax created by Obamacare to their hospital customers, causing them to continue to make cuts and to look to foreign markets for more profitable growth.
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.
Indiana University Health Morgan Hospital in Martinsville stopped delivering babies on Friday and instead will direct pregnant women to IU Health Bloomington Hospital, which is a 30-minute drive farther south. In 2012, only 3 percent of deliveries at Bloomington Hospital were for moms from Morgan County. But IU Health made the change because the hospital in Martinsville was delivering only 218 of the 1,200 annual births in Morgan County, according to an evaluation by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The group recommends a hospital have at least 300 births in order to continue its obstetrics program. The change is also being made because many of the women seeking obstetric services at IU Morgan are high-risk patients and the hospital does not have the facilities to serve them, said Amy Wozniak, IU Health Morgan's director of public relations, in a statement. IU Health Bloomington Hospital delivers about 1,900 babies each year. “We understand this affects our community as well as some IU Health Morgan Hospital employees. We believe, however, that this decision is best for our patients,” said Doug Puckett, CEO of IU Health Morgan Hospital.
Indianapolis-based Hall Render Killian Heath & Lyman PC, the nation’s largest health-care-focused law firm, has officially launched a pharmacy practice. Though the practice area is new, several lawyers within the firm have used their pharmacy-related knowledge and experience to serve clients for several years, said John Hall, the firm’s president and managing partner. The lawyers typically counsel retail and mail-order pharmacies, hospitals and long-term-care providers on a variety of issues: regulatory compliance and enforcement support, development and maintenance of compliance programs, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, private-payer reimbursement, fraud and abuse, and litigation. Hall Render’s pharmacy practice is led by Susan Bizzell, a shareholder of the firm, and is the latest addition to the firm's more than 60 health-care-related specialties. The pharmacy practice consists of about 10 lawyers. With 97 local attorneys, Hall Render is ranked as the city’s seventh-largest law firm, according to IBJ’s most recent statistics.
Indianapolis-based Pearl IRB LLC, a life sciences consultancy operating as Pearl Pathways, announced Jan. 29 that it plans to add 38 jobs by 2016 as part of a $355,000 expansion. The company, in Indiana University’s Emerging Tech Center near the Central Canal, will use the investment to lease and equip a 2,000-square-foot facility at 29 E. McCarthy St. Pearl Pathways plans to move in March and is hiring additional regulatory-affairs, quality-compliance and clinical-trial specialists. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. said it will provide Pearl Pathways up to $750,000 in performance-based tax credits and up to $75,000 in training grants based on the company's job-creation plans. Founded in 2010 by former Eli Lilly and Co. employees Diana Caldwell and Gretchen Miller Bowker, Pearl Pathways provides research and product development services for drug, biologic and medical device companies.
Zimmer Holdings Inc. predicted revenue and profit will pick up steam in 2013 after its fourth-quarter profit fell 2 percent due to large accounting charges. The Warsaw-based maker of orthopedic implants said it expects revenue to grow this year 2.5 percent to 4.5 percent, when adjusted for foreign currency fluctuations. It expects earnings per share, excluding special charges, to range between $5.65 and $5.85. Those results would mark growth of 7 percent to 10 percent over last year’s adjusted earnings per share of $5.30. In the fourth quarter, Zimmer’s reduced profits still beat estimates of Wall Street analysts. Zimmer earned $152.8 million, or 88 cents per share, in the quarter. The company took a $96 million charge to write down the value of its U.S. spine business, which it says is pressured by lower utilization and lower prices. Excluding that charge and $69 million in other special charges, Zimmer would have earned $1.51 per share. Analysts expected $1.49, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. For all of 2012, Zimmer’s profit fell 1 percent, to $755 million, from the previous year. Excluding special charges, the company would have earned $932.5 million, an increase of 3 percent. Revenue totaled $4.47 billion, virtually unchanged. Wall Street analysts have said 2013 could be a “breakout” year for Zimmer, which has suffered through several years of slow growth. However, they also worry the company is more exposed than its peers to changes coming in 2014 from the U.S. Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act. Zimmer shares have risen 23 percent in the past 12 months.
The Warsaw-based maker of orthopedic implants posted flat revenue and modest profit growth in 2012, but it expects revenues to grow this year by 2.5 percent to 4.5 percent.
Shares of Zimmer Holdings Inc. have generated impressive returns of 23 percent in the past year and some 2013 product launches could juice those results even further. But the Warsaw-based maker of orthopedic implants is also the most-exposed company in its industry to two key elements of health care reform: the medical device tax and bundled payments.
The life sciences industry in Indiana employs 55,500 workers paying average wages of more than $88,500 per year, according to new figures released Tuesday by Indianapolis-based life sciences development group BioCrossroads.
Shares of Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. spiked 10 percent on Oct. 25 after it announced earnings that edged past the expectations of Wall Street analysts. But the Batesville-based maker of hospital beds and furniture gave up much of those gains as the week ended. Hill-Rom earned $39.2 million in the three months ended Sept. 30, a 38-percent decline from the same quarter a year ago. Earnings per share totaled 63 cents in the most recent quarter, and only 56 cents when special items were excluded. But analysts were expecting even less, just 55 cents per share, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. Also, Hill-Rom’s revenue soared above analysts' expectations, totaling $431.6 million. Analysts had predicted revenue of $418 million in the quarter. Shares of Hill-Rom’s stock opened the day Oct. 25 at $30.43, a 10-percent jump from their close the previous day. But by the end of Friday, Hill-Rom’s shares had settled back down to $28.39 apiece, essentially unchanged for the week.
The Indiana University School of Medicine gave details Oct. 25 on its expansion of its program in Lafayette from two years to four years and plans to grow enrollment. The program, which is housed on the campus of Purdue University, this year enrolled 39 third-year students who are doing rotations at hospitals in the Lafayette area. The Lafayette medical program will add fourth-year medical students next year. Previously, medical students who began in Lafayette would finish their medical training at the IU medical school’s main campus in Indianapolis. The IU medical school has been enrolling 16 students per year at the Lafayette campus. But in 2014, when the school moves into a new building on Purdue’s campus, it will boost enrollment to 24 students per year. The new building, known as Lyles-Porter Hall, will give the school the capacity to enroll as many as 32 students. The Lafayette campus was launched in 1968. A second-year curriculum was added in 1980.
Zimmer Holdings Inc. beat analysts’ estimates with its third-quarter profit, but trimmed its full-year forecast. The Warsaw-based maker of orthopedic implants said Oct. 25 that it earned $178.1 million in the three months ended Sept. 30, a 7-percent decline from the same quarter last year. Excluding special charges, however, Zimmer would have earned $202.1 million, a 2.5-percent increase from a year ago. Earnings per share on that basis totaled $1.15. Wall Street analysts were expecting $1.13 per share, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. For the full year, Zimmer now expects earnings per share to fall between $4.75 and $4.80 on a reported basis and between $5.25 and $5.35, excluding special charges. Zimmer’s previous forecasts had added another nickel of earnings on the high end of those ranges. Zimmer expects foreign exchange rates to keep its sales flat the rest of the year.
Shareholders of Amerigroup Corp. on Oct. 23 overwhelmingly approved the Virginia company’s $4.9 billion sale to Indianapolis-based health insurer WellPoint Inc. The vote clears the way for the acquisition to close before the end of the year. More than 99.9 percent of shares voted Tuesday were in favor of the sale to WellPoint, although those shares represented just 80 percent of all Amerigroup shares outstanding. Some Amerigroup shareholders had questioned the deal when Amerigroup revealed that a second suitor had been in the mix. WellPoint agreed to buy Amerigroup on July 9 to beef up its business of managing Medicaid plans for state governments.
The Warsaw-based maker of orthopedic implants beat analysts’ estimates with its third-quarter earnings, but lowered its full-year forecast.
The skies got a little brighter for the orthopedic industry on Friday after Warsaw-based Biomet Inc. reported strong quarterly sales growth of 3.4 percent. That news sparked a small surge in the stock prices of two other Warsaw-based orthopedics companies.
Republicans in the U.S. House joined with 37 Democrats to pass a bill repealing a medical-device tax, chipping away at the 2010 health-care law in a victory for companies including Indiana-based Zimmer Holdings Inc. and Boston Scientific Corp.
A $100 million partnership will instead produce only $15.5 million after the California-based Alfred E. Mann Foundation for Biomedical Engineering requested to end its agreement with the Purdue Research Foundation. In 2007, the Mann Foundation pledged to fund a $100 million endowment to create and support the Alfred Mann Institute at Purdue University to commercialize Purdue technologies through seed-stage funding and business guidance. But now the Mann Foundation’s focus is changing, its president, David Hankin, said in his only publicly stated reason for the change. Since 2008, the Mann Foundation has given Purdue $15.5 million to advance 11 different technologies. The effort has helped launch such companies as QuantIon Technologies Inc., SpeechVive Inc., ImpactGuard and BioRegeneration Technologies LLC. Purdue will continue to operate the Alfred Mann Institute, which has provided a model for commercializing technologies it is now applying throughout the university.
Henry County Hospital in New Castle opened a Cardiovascular Center this month as a joint venture with the Indianapolis-based St. Vincent Heart Center of Indiana. St. Vincent will provide some of the specialist physicians at the new center. The center will focus on diagnosing and rehabilitating heart patients, and will refer complex cases to the St. Vincent Heart Center for treatment.
Indiana University Health announced Tuesday that it will give $75 million in additional funding over the next five years to ramp up research at the Indiana University School of Medicine and launch more clinical trials around the state. The IU medical school will contribute non-cash resources valued at $75 million toward the effort, which will focus on research in cancer, cardiology and neuroscience. The goal is to expand access to cutting-edge clinical trials to IU Health’s 20 hospitals around the state, as well as to attract the next generation of bright minds to do their research and clinical work in Indiana. IU Health already spends $16.5 million a year on research, according to a report issued last year. The new initiative will nearly double that amount. Much of that money goes to the IU medical school, which is a distinct organization from IU Health, but works closely with the hospital system. The IU medical school attracts $280 million in annual research funding from all sources. The new money will flow to roughly 10 projects, which already have been approved by the IU Health and IU medical school’s boards of directors.
RepuCare Inc., a health care staffing firm, said Wednesday it plans to expand its Indianapolis headquarters, creating up to 82 jobs by 2015. RepuCare already has begun hiring additional employees in health care, account management and administration. The company now has about 50 full-time and 50 part-time employees. Founded in 1995, RepuCare provides staffing services to government health plans, hospitals, outpatient clinics and nursing homes, as well as on-site health care services to employers. The company's notable customers include WellPoint Inc., Eli Lilly and Co., Howard County, and the cities of Indianapolis and Kokomo.
Sales and profits were flat in the first quarter at Warsaw-based Zimmer Holdings Inc., the maker of orthopedic implants reported on Thursday. Profit for the quarter totaled $209.6 million, or $1.17 per share, up 0.3 percent from the same period a year ago. Revenue rose 2 percent, to $1.14 billion. Sales grew 10 percent in Zimmer’s Asia-Pacific regions, but increased just 1 percent each in the Americas and Europe. Zimmer expects to earn full-year profits of $4.70 per share to $4.90 per share, a nickel per share less than an earlier forecast, due to the impact of foreign exchange rates.
First-quarter profits tumbled at Eli Lilly and Co. but were better than either analysts or the company expected. That prompted Lilly to boost its full-year profit forecast 5 cents to 10 cents per share. Lilly’s revenue and profit have been falling after it lost patent protection on two blockbuster drugs: the cancer drug Gemzar in late 2010 and the antipsychotic Zyprexa in late 2011. Lilly’s profit in the first quarter totaled $1.01 billion, or 91 cents per share, down from $1.06 billion, or 95 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago. Wall Street analysts were expecting 78 cents per share in the most recent quarter, according to a Thomson Reuters survey. The decline in profit was actually much larger than it seemed. A year ago, Lilly booked some one-time charges for research deals with other companies and for reductions in personnel. Excluding all such charges in both years, Lilly’s per-share profit would have fallen nearly 26 percent, from $1.24 per share in the first quarter a year ago to 92 cents per share this year. For all of 2012, Lilly now expects per-share profit in a range of $3.15 to $3.30, excluding a penny-per-share charge taken in the first quarter for a one-time restructuring move.
First-quarter profit declined nearly 8 percent at WellPoint Inc., but the health insurer beat analysts’ expectations and raised its full-year profit forecast a nickel per share. The Indianapolis-based company posted earnings of $857 million, or $2.53 per share, down from $927 million, or $2.44 per share in the same period a year ago. The per-share profits increased because WellPoint has reduced its total shares 10 percent through an aggressive buyback program. Excluding investment gains, WellPoint would have earned $2.34 per share. On that basis, Wall Street analysts were expecting $2.27 per share, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. WellPoint said gains from its senior business improved, as the company recovered from mispricing some of its Medicare Advantage policies last year. But overall membership in its health plans declined in the quarter by 600,000. WellPoint expects that total to drop another 100,000 during the rest of the year.
Indiana-based orthopedic implant maker Zimmer Holdings Inc. on Thursday reported a fractional increase in first-quarter profit on higher sales in all global regions, particularly the Asia Pacific.
Wishard Health Services named Dr. Christopher Weaver chief medical officer. He was vice president of clinical and business integration at Wishard, the county-owned hospital in Indianapolis. Weaver is also an associate professor of emergency medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He earned his bachelor’s and medical degrees from the University of Kentucky. He also holds an MBA from Indiana University.
David Dvorak, CEO of Warsaw-based Zimmer Holdings Inc., has been named chairman of Washington, D.C.-based AdvaMed, the main lobbying group for the U.S. medical-device industry. Dvorak replaced Jim Mazzo, senior vice president of Abbott Medical Optics, who chaired AdvaMed since 2008.
Zimmer Holdings Inc. plans to outsource its 120-person transportation management team to Memphis, Tenn., and also will cut another 50 positions by year’s end in an effort to offset an anticipated $60 million hit from the medical device tax enacted by the 2010 health reform law. The Warsaw-based maker of orthopedic implants informed its employees of the impending job changes on Feb. 29, even though they won’t take effect for another six months, according to spokesman Garry Clark. He said Zimmer hopes its affected employees can transfer to other roles inside the company. The medical device tax, which will take effect next year, will assess a 2.3-percent fee on all U.S. sales of medical devices. It is expected to generate $2 billion per year to help fund an expansion of health insurance under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Medical device companies, including Zimmer and Bloomington-based Cook Group, have consistently opposed the tax, saying it would inevitably force them to cut jobs in the United States.
Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. awarded $2.5 million to the Indiana University School of Medicine in part to establish an endowed chair for the medical school’s initiative in Eldoret, Kenya. Matching funds from IUPUI will bring the total grant to $4 million. IU’s program in Kenya is called AMPATH, which stands for the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare. It is a collaboration of numerous universities, all working to provide basic needs and health care to patients in Kenya, particularly those suffering from HIV and AIDS. The endowed chair established through the grant will fund the work of the program’s field director in Kenya—which is now Dr. Joe Mamlin—so the work there can continue for years to come. The chair will be named the Stephanie and Craig Brater Chair in Global Health in honor of IU medical school dean Dr. Craig Brater, and his wife.
After losing $1.5 million in its most recent fiscal quarter, West Lafayette-based Bioanalytical Systems Inc., decided to close its laboratory in McMinnville, Ore., and instead consolidate that work in at its headquarters in West Lafayette. The move will bring as many as 20 new positions to West Lafayette and save the company more than $2 million per year, the company estimated. The leader of the Oregon lab, Lori Payne, will move to Indiana to become vice president of bioanalytical operations. Bioanalytical performs analysis for drug companies before they submit drugs for human trials. Bioanalytical CEO Anthony Chilton said the move would save money “by eliminating redundancies in expensive laboratory equipment and improving laboratory utilization.”
Roche Diagnostics Corp. is ramping up cargo shipments between the U.S. and Europe, securing a third weekly Cargolux flight at Indianapolis International Airport to ship its medical products overseas. The flight, which began Jan. 15, is the first scheduled Cargolux flight to depart Indianapolis and fly nonstop to Europe–opening up new export capabilities from central Indiana. Currently, Cargolux Airlines International operates two inbound flights from Luxembourg to Indianapolis, each Wednesday and Friday. Boeing 747 freighters typically take on Roche’s chemical reagents and medical devices and then stop in Chicago or other cities before heading back to Europe. The outbound Boeing 747 will have room for additional cargo, which Roche hopes to grow into, but it also could be used by other companies shipping products to Europe. Roche, based in Switzerland, operates its North American headquarters out of Indianapolis.
AIT Laboratories, one of the area’s fastest-growing companies in recent years, is now eliminating jobs. The Indianapolis-based forensics and clinical testing company won’t say how many, but officials admit its business got pinched in 2011 and now it is trying to restructure. “AIT has seen reimbursement from government and private payers reduced throughout 2011, which has had a negative financial impact on the company,” CEO Michael Evans said in a prepared statement. The job cuts are a turnabout from 2010, when AIT said it planned to create as many as 160 positions by 2014 and invest $74 million to equip a 90,000-square-foot building at Woodland Corporate Park as a new headquarters and lab. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered AIT up to $1.8 million in performance-based tax credits to help with the expansion. AIT had boasted as many as 500 employees recently. Some pharmacy industry websites have been buzzing with talk about “massive” job cuts at AIT, with claims of as many as 100 furloughs. AIT officials would not confirm or deny those numbers.
A California-based pharmaceutical company says it expects to hire 234 people by 2016 at a new operation on the site of a former Pfizer Inc. drug plant on the south side of Terre Haute. NantWorks LLC plans to invest $85.5 million to redevelop the facility. The manufacturing plant, which is expected to be operational in 2015, will produce cancer drugs and injectable medicines for use in critical care settings. Pfizer employed more than 800 workers at the site before closing in 2008. NantWorks officials say scientists, chemists and engineers employed by the plant will earn an average annual salary of about $51,000.
Warsaw-based Zimmer Holdings Inc. acquired Synvasive Technology Inc., which makes Stablecut surgical saw blades and a soft tissue balancing system for knees. Zimmer did not disclose the price it paid for Synvasive, a privately held company based in Reno, Nev. Zimmer has annual sales of more than $4 billion and sells its orthopedic implants in more than 25 countries.
Forbes blogger Peter Cohan estimates that orthopedic implant companies—including Warsaw-based Zimmer Holdings Inc. and DePuy Orthopaedics Inc.—will pay out $5 billion to cover legal claims that their all-metal hip implants have failed, causing new health issues. The metal pieces of the implants allegedly generate debris as they rub against each other, and the debris is damaging tissue, causing infections and, in extreme cases, leading to crippling complications. Cohan broadcast his prediction after the New York Times published an article on the problem last week. The Times noted that private health insurers are moving in court to recover their expenses for the follow-up medical care caused by the hip implants. The federal Medicare program is expected to follow suit. Cohan estimates there will be 30,000 claims before the issue is settled. Multiply that number by likely settlement amounts—he notes it was $147,000 per patient 10 years ago in a case involving Sulzer Orthopedics—and you get pretty close to $5 billion.
A long-running dispute between two local food companies that serve nursing homes was resolved in October by Hamilton County Judge Steve Nation. Anderson-based Rubicon Foods LLC was ordered to pay $94,600 to Indianapolis-based Darlington Cookie Co. for misappropriation of trade secrets and trespassing on computers. Rubicon is also on the hook for nearly $276,000 in attorney's fees racked up by Darlington’s law firm, Indianapolis-based Bose McKinney & Evans LLP. Darlington is led by Phil Hockemeyer, and Rubicon is led by his younger brothers, Steve and Todd Hockemeyer. All three brothers worked together at Darlington before the younger two left in 2006 to form Rubicon, claiming they were forced out. But Darlington claimed successfully that Steve and Todd Hockemeyer stole trade secrets from Darlington’s computers before leaving. Both companies make food mixes that whip up into sliced bread, rice, pasta and cookies that dissolve immediately when eaten by nursing home patients. The mixes are designed to help patients who are malnourished or sometimes even die because they can’t swallow solid food properly.
St. Vincent Randolph Hospital in Winchester will join the Indiana Telehealth Network. Construction of about 25 miles of fiber-optic cabling to the hospital will begin in the coming weeks. Construction will be completed this summer. The project brings broadband Internet access to the 25-bed hospital, as well as establishes a connection hub for broadband connectivity for surrounding Randolph County. The Indiana Telehealth Network already includes 23 rural hospitals and five urban partner hospitals. The network is primarily funded by the Federal Communications Commission and is administered by the Indiana Rural Health Association. St. Vincent Randolph is part of the Indianapolis-based St. Vincent Health chain of hospitals.
