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.
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.
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.
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.
Life sciences leaders discuss topics ranging from accomplishments to initial public offerings and the nature of innovation at the July 25 event.
Attempts to build the sector are making headway, but Indiana still lags leading states.
PTS Diagnostics engineered an about-face on its business plan five years ago, ditching its retail strategy to focus on serving physicians and nurse practitioners. This year, PTS is on pace to record revenue of nearly $50 million, up from $17 million two years ago.
Indianapolis-based PTS Diagnostics is on pace to boost revenue 60 percent this year, fueled by its acquisition of a blood glucose test and a shift to help doctors and nurses do a better job monitoring the health of their patients. PTS acquired the A1C Now test in December 2013 from Germany-based Bayer AG. That product […]
Sigstr sells software that manages corporate email signatures and the marketing campaigns beneath them. The firm hopes to capitalize on some of the billions of annual corporate email impressions.
PTS Diagnostics, with about 150 employees in Indianapolis, said Monday it has entered a definitive agreement to be acquired by China-based Sinocare Inc.
Former Apparatus President Aman Brar has launched Canvas Talent Inc., with a software tool that allows recruiters to manage their text conversations with prospective employees.
A growing number of Indiana corporations are formalizing in-house innovation, an effort aimed at remaining technologically relevant in a fast-changing business landscape.
The industry’s payroll and average wages dipped last year, according the latest report from Indiana University and BioCrossroads.
An Indianapolis-based company that makes handheld medical testing devices plans to move its 150 employees to a new headquarters in Boone County, where it will hire an additional 50 to 70 workers.
Boone County has been deluged with announcements about new businesses with new jobs, but filling those jobs could be challenging in a fairly rural area with a rock-bottom unemployment rate.
A new study by BioCrossroads and Indiana University shows the sector’s economic impact grew about 1 percent last year, to $79 billion.
The plaza adjacent to the expanded Monon Greenway is designed as a playground for adults and kids. Also this week: Plans for a new Little League Central Region headquarters move ahead in Whitestown; PTS Diagnostics opens its new HQ.
The manufacturer has created an innovation studio bent on getting products from concept to market in 120 days or less.
Industrial property owners along Interstate 65 in Whitestown have successfully petitioned for a new tax-like funding structure to provide more than 650 employees a month with a ride to work.
