CBRE awarded management of Chase Tower, PNC Center
The real estate brokerage won the business following a shakeup at Commonwealth REIT, which owns the building. An investor campaign led to the ouster of its board in March.
The real estate brokerage won the business following a shakeup at Commonwealth REIT, which owns the building. An investor campaign led to the ouster of its board in March.
Sales of previously owned U.S. homes posted the best monthly gain in nearly three years in May, providing hope that housing is beginning to regain momentum lost over the past year.
Emphasis on efficiency, technology is softening job demand.
State Sen. Jim Smith claims in his [June 2] letter to the editor that Doug Masson missed most of the story regarding the legislation to repeal the 17th Amendment.
Nearly 350,000 visitors have lined the fields at Westfield’s Grand Park Sports Campus since competition kicked off this spring, and now the city is hosting a three-day grand-opening celebration that promises to live up to the description.
A new research consortium spearheaded by the Indiana University School of Medicine and Eli Lilly and Co. could bring in $25 million to $50 million over five years to create a new approach for developing drugs that provide more precise treatment for small groups of patients.
Indianapolis-based Harlan Laboratories quietly sold itself last month to United Kingdom-based Huntingdon Life Sciences. Huntingdon has 1,200 employees, most of them in the UK and Princeton, N.J. Harlan has about 2,300 employees worldwide, including 300 locally. “There are no plans to have any layoffs in the area, and Huntingdon is planning to continue an Indianapolis presence,” Harlan Chief Financial Officer Doug Vaughan said. “We would hope our business will grow locally.” Harlan had been weighed down by declining revenue in its contract research business and a pile of debt, which credit analysts deemed a serious liability. Already out of the picture is Harlan CEO Hans Thumen. Contacted via LinkedIn, Thumen declined to comment. But Vaughan said he left when the deal closed because “the combined company only needed one CEO.” The huge debt load was left over from the 2005 leveraged buyout of the company by San Francisco-based Genstar Capital. In early 2013, Harlan nearly engineered a $305 million restructuring, but the deal fell apart. Last fall, IBJ reported that Genstar might sell the company to avert default on $280 million in debt due to be paid off in July 2014.
Community Health Network and Eskenazi Health quietly called off their engagement months ago, when they found out federal laws effectively prohibited their marriage. Leaders of the two Indianapolis-based hospital systems are holding out hope they still may be able to join, but doing so would require Congress to change federal tax laws—and getting anything passed in Congress these days is extremely difficult. The two hospital systems announced in February 2013 a joint operating partnership that would create a joint board to form common strategies, pricing and clinical collaborations. They staged a splashy press conference at City Market, with public officials in attendance. Their plan would have created a primary care behemoth, with more front doors to access health care than any other hospital system in the area. That would have put Community and Eskenazi in a position to scoop up customers newly insured under Obamacare. But in late September, Community CEO Bryan Mills called off the deal so the organizations could focus on changes coming from Obamacare and so Eskenazi could focus on completing its new 315-bed hospital, which opened in December. The rules for the special bonds Eskenazi sold to finance its $754 million hospital require that the recipient of proceeds be separate from any private organizations. The bonds were part of the Build America section of President Obama’s 2009 stimulus package, and offered lower interest rates for publicly funded projects.
Dr. Ora Pescovitz, the former CEO of Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health, is returning to Indianapolis to work for Eli Lilly and Co. Pescovitz, 57, spent the past five years as CEO of the University of Michigan Health System. Pescovitz, who stepped down from her Michigan position June 1, will join Lilly in October as a senior vice president, medical. Initially, she will work under Dr. Tim Garnett, Lilly’s chief medical officer, focusing on medical policy issues, such as Lilly’s relationship with health care professionals, expanding access to Lilly medicines, and patient support programs. After what Lilly is calling an “orientation period,” Pescovitz will move to “a senior medical leadership role,” according to a statement from Lilly spokeswoman Janice Chavers.
The Healthy Indiana Plan is a good move for Indiana and our country. It allows us to provide access to health care to the uninsured poor in a way that instills responsibility, limits abuse and furthers innovation.
Voter turnout in Indiana’s recent primary election was the lowest in 20 years, 35 percent below average. It’s time for a serious conversation about whether the growing use of voting centers is bad for turnout.
New data show eight out of 10 Hoosiers with private health insurance are covered by employer plans that are exempt from most Obamacare rules. So, rather than being an invasive train wreck, Obamacare may fail because it doesn’t affect enough people.
Dr. Ora Pescovitz is returning to Indianapolis after spending the past five years as CEO of the University of Michigan Health System.
Carmel-based Delta Faucet Co. has a new president after a pair of promotions by parent company Masco Corp., the companies announced.
Indianapolis-based VoCare Inc. has formed a partnership with Motorola Mobility LLC, a subsidiary of Google Inc., to offer telehealth and remote monitoring services to seniors via Motorola smartphones. The partnership comes as VoCare raised $5 million this spring and is now trying to raise another $20 million. Along with Motorola, VoCare will offer smartphones that come preloaded with applications that connect to health care monitoring peripherals, the peripherals themselves, along with the phone and data services needed to power them. The VoCare phones have a safety button that connects them immediately to a remote call center if they experience falls or other emergencies. Also, VoCare’s remote monitoring system can keep track of seniors' health status as they use the medical peripherals or if their typical movement patterns change, suggesting a change in health. VoCare CEO Steve Peabody said in a prepared statement that the service will allow doctors to keep track of their patients and, using the video functions on the smartphones, make “virtual house calls.”
Indianapolis-based Indigo BioSystems Inc. has changed CEOs after securing $8.5 million in venture capital. The north-side firm of 47 employees makes software used by medical and research labs to review and analyze chemical compounds and tissue samples. Its new CEO is past president Randall Julian, a former Eli Lilly and Co. researcher who founded the company in 2004 through the drugmaker’s venture group. Julian takes over from Raul Zavaleta, who had led the company since 2011 so Julian could focus on product development. Zavaleta remains with the company as a consultant and a board director. Bootstrap Venture Fund LP, headquartered in San Diego, led the $8.5 million investment round. The investment is Indigo's second from a venture capital firm. The company raised $1.8 million in 2011. It has also received $1.75 million in grants from the federally funded 21st Century Research and Technology Fund, as well as $700,000 in conditional tax credits through the Indiana Economic Development Corp.
Indianapolis-based Cornerstone Cos. could break ground this year on an $11 million medical office building, expected to be largely owned by the doctors who practice there. Cornerstone is planning to locate the three-story, 43,000-square-foot building along Interstate 69 on a four-acre site on Olivia Way, which is near both the St. Vincent Fishers Hospital and the Indiana University Health Saxony Hospital. The Fishers Town Council agreed to forgive two-thirds of the property taxes on the project for six years. When the abatement runs out, Deer Creek Point’s property tax bill is expected to be about $178,000 a year—$70,000 more than a retail project would generate, according to projections prepared by public finance firm H.J. Umbaugh & Associates.
A San Diego venture capital firm has made a big bet on Indigo BioSystems Inc., which just installed its founder as the new chief executive.
The decision to collect cases before one court comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it will re-examine the safety of testosterone-replacement drugs after studies showed the medicine posed an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.
If you’re not certain whether a school counselor’s primary duty is to review college-application letters, work with troubled students, or proctor AP testing, you’re not alone.
Politicians in Indiana and other states hope tax cuts for businesses will boost their economies, but those and other moves could be contributing to the income gap limiting growth in U.S. consumer spending.
The famed stuffed-pizza chain is making a rare foray outside the Windy City in space at the Rivers Edge shopping center long held by upscale Italian eatery Sangiovese.
Indianapolis-based health insurer WellPoint Inc. will start paying cancer doctors $350 per month more for every WellPoint patient they treat—if the doctors agree to follow WellPoint’s recommended treatment plans, according to the Wall Street Journal. The program aims to curb the 25-percent annual growth in spending on cancer care and to reduce the nearly one-third of chemotherapy patients who receive treatment conflicting with current medical evidence and best practices. The extra payments are also designed to make it easier financially for oncology practices to prescribe lower-cost drugs—because the revenue oncologists make from those drugs is less than more expensive drugs. Because oncologists not only prescribe, but also infuse many cancer drugs into their patients, the drugs often account for a substantial amount of their practice revenue. The program will be implemented July 1 in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Wisconsin.
Radiopharmaceuticals maker Zevacor Molecular plans to open a $40 million medical isotope-production facility in Noblesville, creating nearly 50 jobs within five years. Noblesville will provide an estimated $1.9 million—about 85 percent of the new property taxes the project should produce—in equipment and other necessities, according to a development deal the Common Council unanimously approved Tuesday. The agreement also calls for Zevacor to get a 95-percent abatement on personal property taxes for 10 years. Zevacor, which has eight employees and an office in Fishers, is a for-profit subsidiary of Decatur, Ill.-based not-for-profit Illinois Health & Science—also the parent of Decatur Memorial Hospital. It operates hospital cyclotrons and nuclear pharmacies in several states, said Kenneth Smithmier, Illinois Health’s president and CEO. A similar facility in Noblesville had been planned three years ago by Positron Corp., but the company failed to line up the necessary financial support.
The Indiana University School of Medicine will help oversee a three-year, $30 million concussion study being funded by the Indianapolis-based NCAA and the U.S. Defense Department, according to the Associated Press. The study, which will involve athletes from as many as 30 universities, will be led by IU's School of Medicine in collaboration with the University of Michigan and the Medical College of Wisconsin. IU researchers aim to collect data on 37,000 athletes.
Indianapolis-based OurHealth LLC plans to create a network of health care clinics serving employers across Indiana over the next four years and hire up to 450 people. The 5-year-old company has pledged to invest nearly $20 million, which would include the cost of doubling the size of its headquarters downtown. It currently leases about 10,000 square feet at OneAmerica Tower. OurHealth also plans to lease real estate for a series of 3,500-square-foot health clinics across the state. In June, OurHealth plans to begin hiring certified medical assistants, health coaches, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and doctors to staff its clinics. OurHealth’s website already has posted job openings in Kokomo, Logansport, Madison, Merrillville and Indianapolis. The firm employs more than 120 people and operates 15 clinics, most of which are dedicated to a single employer. The new clinics typically would serve multiple employers.
French drug company Sanofi will seek to sell Eli Lilly and Co.’s erectile dysfunction drug Cialis without a prescription, the companies announced last week, according to Bloomberg News. Sanofi will apply for approval of Cialis as an over-the-counter treatment in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia, and will market the drug after certain patents expire. The deal hinges on regulatory approval in each country—a big question mark, according to analysts. The plan gives Sanofi access to a drug that garnered $2.16 billion in sales last year and faces generic competition in 2017.