The most obvious use for the old Wishard site is an expansion of the Indiana University School of Medicine, particularly for
medical research space, university administrators said.
When Sisters of St. Francis Health Services Inc. bought Tonn and Blank Construction Co. in 1998, more
than one employee of the Michigan City firm wondered what it would be like to be run by a Roman Catholic
order that not only owned a string of Midwestern hospitals but also traced its spiritual heritage to
a 12th century mystic.
The Carmel-based life insurer’s third-quarter results exceeded Wall Street analysts’ predictions.
The Senate health care committee is investigating how health insurers, including Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc., price
the coverage they sell to small businesses.
Eli Lilly and Co.’s Byetta won a new market approval, which the company hopes will reverse the diabetes
drug’s recent sales decline. But the drug also was the subject of a new alert about kidney problems in patients taking
the drug. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration OK’d Byetta to be used sooner in patients suffering from poor blood
sugar control. But the FDA also told doctors to be alert about kidney problems of some patients taking Byetta.
Before, the FDA called for Byetta to be used only after patients tried other drugs without success. Byetta, which Lilly sells
via a partnership with San Diego-based Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc., suffered a 5-percent decline in U.S. sales in the 12 months
year, to $171 million in the third quarter. Worldwide Byetta sales totaled $593 million through
the first nine months of this year, a 5-percent increase compared with the same period in 2008.
Lilly
also will trim 191 sales jobs in Indiana as part of a company-wide restructuring announced in September that ultimately
will result in 5,500 job cuts by the end of 2011. The pharmaceutical giant will trim its osteoporosis, diabetes and neuroscience
sales forces, which are listed as working out of the Lilly Technology Center on South Harding Street. The workers’ last day
will be Dec. 31.
Local health care information technology professionals will discuss efforts to bring Indiana health
care into the digital age at a breakfast meeting on Friday. The panelists will include Jane Niederberger, president of Indianapolis-based
My Health Care Manager LLC, Stacy Cook, a physician attorney at
the Indianapolis law firm of Barnes & Thornburg LLP, Michael E. Rudicle, a director at
the local office of New York-based accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, and Jack Horner, CEO of Major
Hospital in Shelbyville. The meeting, part of the New Economy New Rules series, will be held at the downtown offices
of the Barnes & Thornburg law firm.
Wishard Foundation said it has received a $6 million
grant from the Indianapolis-based Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation
to help fund construction of a new Wishard Hospital. Voters on Tuesday approved a new $754 million hospital
for Wishard Health Services. The $6 million grant is the single largest philanthropic contribution Wishard
has received in its 150-year history.
The FDA said a new titanium implant
to re-stabilize the spine, made by Zimmer Holdings Inc., showed good
results in a clinical trial. But the FDA also noted that physicians who had received consulting payments from Warsaw-based
Zimmer turned in patient results better than physicians who were not paid by Zimmer, according to the Associated Press. The
FDA noted the correlation was not statistically significant, but it will asks a panel of orthopedic specialists to weigh in
on the new device and decide whether Zimmer should provide more data before approving it for sale. The agency is not required
to follow the group’s advice, though it usually does.
The health care overhaul bill produced by House Democrats would impose an array of new taxes, fees and government mandates
on major players in the health industry, including drug companies and big medical-device makers headquartered in Indiana.
Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc.’s Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield subsidiary claimed 42.5 percent of central Indiana residents
covered by private health insurance
this year, up from 35-percent last year, according to a market research firm.
One of the toughest runs for the finance industry since the Great Depression didn’t lead to a major shakeup in Indianapolis’
banking landscape. Substitute PNC’s brand for National City’s, and the top eight positions remain unchanged.
After no Indiana health and life sciences firms announced venture capital deals in the second quarter, five did so in the
third, and two more have already this month.
Long tracking the emergence of information technology firms involved in the health and life sciences sector, the state’s
IT trade group, TechPoint, is undergoing a mitosis of sorts to help fuel the trend. It has created Advancing
Life Science & Health Care Information Technology, or ALHIT, which will focus on growing this subset of the IT realm.
Some Indianapolis-area doctors fear a bill in the U.S. Senate would botch the way costs for tests and procedures are calculated, and ultimately
lead to a reimbursement system that works worse than the existing system.
Democratic lawmakers are seeking to stir up competition by stripping health insurers like Indianapolis-based WellPoint of
their protection from certain federal antitrust laws, although experts shrug off the effort as largely symbolic.
Bloomington-based Cook Group Inc. might have to cut as many as 1,000 local jobs if Congress enacts a tax on medical devices
to pay for health care reform, company founder Bill Cook said in an interview.
Goodwill Industries executive Keith Reissaus has been tapped to run Washington, D.C.-based Leapfrog Group, an industry coalition.
Reissaus gained control of health care costs by giving employees incentives to care about their health.
Mayoral Chief of Staff Paul Okeson said the city isn’t sure it makes sense to privatize operations now handled by
the Capital Improvement Board, “but we’re obligated on behalf of the taxpayer to find out.”
The city of Indianapolis is considering ways to get out of the professional sports stadium and convention center management
business.
Bloomington-based Cook Group Inc. could find itself cutting as many as 1,000 local jobs if Congress enacts a tax on
medical devices to pay for health care reform, company founder Bill Cook said in an interview.
