Life Sciences Power Breakfast – transcript
Life sciences leaders discuss topics ranging from accomplishments to initial public offerings and the nature of innovation at the July 25 event.
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Elanco, the fast-growing animal health division of Eli Lilly and Co., wants to add 200 jobs at its headquarters in Greenfield, but says it needs taxpayer assistance to do it, according to the Greenfield Daily Reporter. Elanco asked the Greenfield City Council for a 10-year tax abatement on a $14 million expansion, which would add two buildings to the corporate campus Elanco opened in 2010. Elanco employs 475 workers there now, paying average slaries of $80,000. Elanco projects it would hire the 200 additional administrative employees—who would oversee the company’s marketing, manufacturing, finance and other operations—by the first half of 2015. The new jobs would pay on average $60,000 apiece. Elanco has been growing rapidly through both increased sales of its products for livestock and pets, as well as through acquisitions. Elanco’s revenue last year grew 21 percent to nearly $1.7 billion.
Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare revamped its myHealthcare Cost Estimator tool for its customers in Indianapolis and 46 other markets, and now provides cost estimates based on the health insurer's actual contracted rates with physicians, hospitals, clinics and other health care providers. The cost estimator tool covers more than 100 common treatments and procedures, factoring in a UnitedHealthcare member’s specific benefits plan. It also allows health plan members to compare cost and quality information between different hospitals and physicians. And the tool even points out alternative treatment options that a patient might consider. “myHealthcare Cost Estimator meets a longstanding consumer need for thorough but simple online comparison shopping for health care by putting relevant information right at people’s fingertips,” UnitedHealthcare's Yasmine Winkler, chief product and marketing officer, said in a prepared statement. Many health insurers are rolling out tools to help consumers gauge cost and quality before making decisions on health care. This year, Indianapolis-based Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield expanded to more than 100 the procedures its cost-comparison tool covers. Anthem also rolled out a program in which employers can give its workers a cash payment each time they use the cost comparison tool before seeking care.
Indiana medical device companies enjoyed at least a symbolic victory last week when the Republican-led House of Representatives voted to repeal the 2.3 percent medical device tax that was part of the 2010 health reform law. The tax, estimated to raise $29 billion over the next decade, is scheduled to take effect next year. Indiana has more than 300 medical device manufacturers, employing almost 20,000 people, including Zimmer Holdings Inc., Biomet Inc., Cook Group, DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., Hill-Rom Inc. and Roche Diagnostics Corp. The repeal is not likely to even come up for a vote in the Senate, and if it does, will almost certainly be defeated by the Democrat-controlled chamber. Also, a repeal of the tax likely faces a veto from President Obama. However, the repeal vote is a sign of Republicans’ attempts to scale back the health care law that passed without a single Republican vote. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this month on the law’s constitutionality.
House swipes at health law with repeal of medical device tax
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.
Company news
Indianapolis-based Strand Diagnostics LLC will receive up to $30 million in investment capital over the next three years from Los Angeles-based NantWorks LLC, a seed-stage investment firm, the companies announced last week. Strand Diagnostics makes the Know Error system, which uses bar coding and DNA matching to make sure biopsy samples are matched to the correct patients when submitted to its labs for testing. The investment capital will help it scale up its operations and sales efforts, the company said in a news release. NantWorks is the same company that announced in January it would sink $85.5 million into a former Pfizer Inc. plant in Terre Haute to produce injectable drugs for use in cancer patients and in critical care situations. NantWorks predicted the plant would employ 234 people by 2016. Strand Diagnostics, which operates a testing lab south of Indianapolis International Airport, launched Know Error in 2009. The company has 58 employees, with 48 of them in Indiana.
The Federal Trade Commission gave the OK to the marriage of Express Scripts Inc. and Medco Health Solutions Inc., two pharmacy benefit managers that combined employ 800 people in the Indianapolis area. The $29 billion deal, according to Bloomberg News, would create the nation’s biggest manager of prescription-drug benefits for corporate and government clients. But it is unclear how the merger will affect staffing at St. Louis-based Express Scripts' facility near Indianapolis International Airport and Medco’s distribution center near Whitestown. A combined Express-Medco would handle 34 percent of prescriptions in the U.S. this year, according to Adam Fein, president of Pembroke Consulting Inc. in Philadelphia, who is a consultant for Express Scripts. However, that share will shrink to 29 percent next year because Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Group Inc. switched from Medco to its own pharmacy benefits unit, OptumRx.
Federal authorities charged a Carmel man on Friday with using his Indianapolis business to defraud the Indiana Medicaid program of more than $1 million. Donald Hamilton, 49, allegedly used his company, Hamilton Medical Inc., to generate false invoices showing that compression stockings for another of his companies, Indianapolis-based Compression Etc., cost almost three times what he paid for them. Hamilton sent invoices to the Indiana Medicaid program for reimbursement for an amount much higher than allowed by law, according to charges announced by Joseph Hogsett, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. He said the investigation was a collaborative effort among the Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service’s criminal investigations unit and the Indiana Attorney General’s Medicaid fraud control unit.
Roche Diagnostics Corp. plans to eliminate about 80 information technology jobs at its Indianapolis-area campus over the next two years. The first round of reductions is to be completed by June 30. The IT workers are actually part of Roche Group’s global pharmaceutical informatics unit, but live in the Indianapolis area, said Roche spokeswoman Julie Bower. Roche employs about 3,000 people at its Indianapolis and Fishers facilities. The company’s worldwide headquarters are in Basel, Switzerland.
Warsaw-based orthopedic implant maker Biomet Inc. agreed to pay $22.7 million to settle allegations that it bribed government-employed doctors in Argentina, Brazil and China for more than eight years to win business with hospitals. The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission announced the settlements March 26. Biomet will pay a $17.3 million criminal penalty but won't be prosecuted by the Justice Department if it institutes strict internal controls to prevent bribery and hires an expert to monitor its compliance for 18 months. Biomet, which operates in about 90 countries, also agreed to pay $5.4 million in restitution to resolve the SEC's civil charges. Biomet is the third medical device company—in addition to New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson and U.K.-based Smith & Nephew plc—to pay a criminal penalty and sign a deferred-prosecution agreement in the government's investigation into bribery by medical device makers of doctors employed by governments overseas.
BioCrossroads has stoked state’s life sciences industry, but challenges remain
In the 10 years BioCrossroads has been promoting life sciences in Indiana, the effort has netted more than 330 new companies, an infusion of more than $330 million in venture capital, a tripling of exports, and a growing number of mentions in national reports on life sciences.
Company news
Subah Packer, a physiology professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine, filed a scathing gender discrimination lawsuit in federal court in Indianapolis this month, accusing the school of paying her less than what male counterparts with less experience earn, even after she attained tenure at the academic medical center. Packer, 57, wants IU to compensate her for loss of past and future income, and pay her attorney's fees. She has worked for IU since 1986 and has been a tenured associate professor of clinical and integrative physiology since 2001. Since then, Packer alleges, her department has hired five less-experienced professors, all male, and paid four of them substantially more than Packer. Her complaint lists her salary as $74,600, compared with starting salaries of roughly $92,000 for three of the newer hires, as well as $82,000 and $72,000 for the other two. Packer also alleges that her salary is below the median of the Physiology Department, which includes 19 full-time professors, even though her teaching load was greater and she had less lab space for conducting research. Mary Hardin, a spokeswoman for the IU medical school, said the school would not comment on the lawsuit. Packer could not be reached for comment.
The city of Indianapolis rescinded a tax abatement last week given in 2007 to Polymer Technology Systems Inc., a small locally based maker of handheld blood monitors. PTS, founded in 1992 by a former Roche Diagnostics Corp. employee, said it would make a $3 million investment at its operation on Zionsville Road and create 110 jobs by 2010, but fell short of its goal. The company has made $2.1 million in investments and currently has only about 70 employees, less than the 80 it had when it received the abatement four years ago, according to the city. PTS chose to terminate the deal rather than renegotiate with the city. PTS makes CardioChek, a handheld meter that measures levels of cholesterol, glucose, triglycerides and other key health indicators from a drop of blood.
Researchers at Indiana State University discovered a new compound that could help boost patients' immune systems without causing unwanted side effects. Biology professor Swapan Ghosh and a team of chemistry professors and graduate students have now patented their chemically modified version of phytol, which is a component of the chlorophyll found in vegetables. Terre Haute-based Indiana State will market the compound to drug companies, which might want to pair it with a drug or vaccine in order to boost effectiveness in patients. Many drugs and vaccines rely on adjuvants like the one Ghosh’s team discovered, but they often have side effects. One of the most widely used adjuvants, alum, has recently come under attack as a possible cause for brain disorders.
City set to cancel tax abatement for medical device firm
Polymer Technology Systems said in 2007 that it would make a $3 million investment at its operation on Zionsville Road and create 110 jobs.
PANEL: Reforms to rapidly reshape health care
Reform-induced changes dominate health care panel of health care experts convened by Indianapolis Business Journal.
Who’s Who in Health Care and Benefits
Every business sector has influential players, whether they are in the public eye or wield their influence behind the scenes. This month, IBJ zeroes in on Health Care and Benefits.
Indiana life sciences leaders look toward the future
Former Eli Lilly and Co. vice president Richard Dimarchi, BioCrossroads President David Johnson, angel investor Oscar Moralez and Purdue University Senior Vice President Alan Rebar discuss issues ranging from the depth of the life sciences industry in Indiana to venture capital and Purdue’s Discovery Park.
Who’s Who in Life Sciences – 2011
In a monthly feature that runs in the first issue of the month, through October, IBJ is identifying influential players in eight different industry categories. Formidable brainpower sums up the individuals included in our list of Who’s Who in Life Sciences.
Socialite to plead guilty to federal fraud charges
A New York socialite is expected to plead guilty to federal charges she duped corporations—including Indianapolis-based Roche Diagnostics Corp.—out of millions of dollars.
Indianapolis airport plan plays up money-making logistics
Growing cargo and logistics business overshadows such titillating concepts as solar farm, recreation campus.
High unemployment prompts new company, The Learning Index
A couple of Hoosier entrepreneurs think they can take their career information web site national.
PTS sues Roche Diagnostic to end blood-monitor royalties
Polymer Technology Systems Inc., a small Indianapolis-based maker of handheld blood monitors, has gone to court to fight
a competitor more than 100 times its size: Roche Diagnostics Corp.Company news
Hey, wait a minute! That was the reaction, somewhat delayed, by the Indiana chapter of the National Federation
of Independent Business, to a late-December change to federal health reform legislation. The
Senate version of reform exempts companies with fewer than 50 employees from a requirement to provide
health benefits. But in late December, Senate leaders made a change for construction firms, saying the
exemption would apply only if they have five or fewer employees. The change was a favor to union groups,
which said non-union construction contractors would have an advantage over unionized shops that do provide
health benefits. Local NFIB leaders staged a protest/press conference last week, calling on Congress to “strip this
job-killing provision from a final health care bill.”Orbis Education, a locally based maker
of nursing-education software, received $8 million in venture capital from Menlo Park, Calif.-based Lightspeed
Venture Partners. Founded in 2003, Orbis offers online instruction to help universities and hospitals
train new nurses. A key hurdle in the looming nursing shortage is the lack of capacity for nursing schools
to accept all qualified applicants. Last year, it had $4.5 million in revenue and 33 employees. Orbis
aims to boost its work force past 50 by the end of the year. Orbis had previously raised $4 million from
family, friends and angel investors.
Watch out, Eli Lilly and Co. A Greenwood pharmaceutical
firm plans to build a $28 million insulin facility there to make a cheaper version of the diabetes-fighting medicine. According
to the Daily Journal of Franklin, Elona Biotechnologies expects its 50,000-square-foot facility to employ as many
as 70 people. Greeenwood officials are considering $8.5 million in incentives, including some loans,
to help Elona build the facility and get it approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Elona
was founded in the late 1980s by former Lilly researcher Ron Zimmerman.West Lafayette-based
IVDiagnostics LLC won a $124,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to further
its cancer diagnostics research. The Small Business and Innovation Research Phase 1 grant will pay for
the company to improve the design of its IVFLow medical device, which analyzes and monitors tumor cells without taking blood
from a patient.Physicians working in a surgery center connected to Community Hospital South kicked
in $500,000 to help the hospital complete a massive expansion. The gift, given by 65 doctors, boosts
to $1.2 million the money raised for the project by the philanthropic arm of Community Health Network.
The $130 million expansion will add 40 beds. It is scheduled to open in mid-2010.Minority suppliers diversifying into life sciences
The Indiana Minority Supplier Development Council has made life sciences companies its latest target—part of an even larger effort to attract minorities to the burgeoning life sciences industry under
way on a national scale.Diversifying into life sciences-WEB ONLY
As one of the city’s most prominent minority business owners, Bill Mays built his chemical distributorship largely on the backs of domestic automakers. In 1980,when he founded Mays Chemical Co. Inc., the Big Three accounted for nearly 75 percent of all new-car sales. But that number has dwindled to less than half of all new […]
Proprietary developments withering from recession
Financing is the lifeblood of companies turning intellectual property into a product or service, but turbulent economic conditions
have made it increasingly difficult to raise cash from investors who are content to wait
out the storm by concentrating on their existing portfolios.Ex-Lilly executives open ‘trials’ clinic: Centurion expects high demand from drug firms
A new clinic that is on the cusp of conducting human trials in Indianapolis could distinguish itself as a key player in drug development, not only within the state, but nationally as well. Centurion Clinical Research LLC serves pharmaceutical companies and medical-device makers that need to test their products before they can be approved for widespread use. That first phase, in which healthy people are paid to participate in the overnight studies, is critical in determining the safety and success…