A dose of light reading
Starting with this post, I’m going to periodically give you a peek at my reading list. I’ll highlight reports and reportage that I have found either helpful or provocative. I hope you do, too.
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Articles
Subaru parent set to reevaluate strategy amid rapid growth
Executives at the company, which counts Toyota Motor Corp. as its biggest shareholder, will begin discussions this month through next year to determine the long-term direction of the Tokyo-based company.
LOU’S VIEWS: Glass Barn farming exhibition among fair’s best newbies
We know what the Indiana State Fair does well. But every year, there are a few new attractions to explore.
HETRICK: Throwing the book at civic illiteracy
If assigned comparison-and-contrast lessons between Zinn’s history and other texts, students might enter college better able to question, discern, reason, shape opinions, defend those opinions and compromise.
ALTOM: Invasion of privacy is both positive and avoidable
Take advantage of being watched, or put away your smart phone and pay with cash.
CEO leaves Defender Direct; founder retakes top spot
Marcia Barnes, who took over as CEO of one of the state's largest private companies 15 months ago, has left the firm.
Board suggested busy Evans let go of AIT
Michael Evans was juggling two companies and two newborn twins when his board of directors suggested it was time for a new CEO of AIT Laboratories. He was replaced by venture capitalist Matt Neff on Monday.
Company news
Plunging revenue from blood glucose monitors has forced Roche Diagnostics Corp. to cut its staff, the company informed the workers last week. Roche, which operates its North American headquarters out of Indianapolis, suffered a 14-percent decline in revenue in its diabetes care unit during the first six months of the year. Roche has put that unit up for sale, according to a May report by the Reuters news agency. Roche spokesman Todd Siesky declined to disclose the number of workers that will be let go, only saying that jobs will be eliminated over the next several months. The cuts will affect Roche’s customer service group in Fishers and its diabetes manufacturing plant on the far northeast side. Between the two sites, Roche employs more than 900 diabetes care workers in the metro area. During the first six months of this year, Roche’s North American sales of diabetes products totaled $224 million. During the same period of 2012, diabetes sales in North American totaled about $257 million. And it’s going to get worse. The price of blood glucose monitors—which account for 90 percent of Roche’s diabetes care revenue—will be hammered by a new competitive bidding process instituted July 1 by the federal Medicare agency. Some projections indicated the Medicare program would drive down its payments 72 percent.
Indianapolis venture capitalist Matt Neff is the new CEO of Indianapolis-based AIT Laboratories, the drug-testing lab founded by Michael Evans. Evans stepped aside once before, in early 2012, and was replaced by Ron Thieme, who had been vice president of information technology. But the move didn’t work out, and Evans returned to the top job that fall. Now, Evans, 69, is stepping aside again, and Neff is becoming chairman, president and CEO, effective Monday. (See related story above.) Evans will remain chairman emeritus and continue as CEO of AIT sister company AIT Bioscience. Neff, meanwhile, is stepping down as CEO and president of CHV Capital, the venture capital arm of Indiana University Health, a post he held for six years. IU Health said the CHV Capital board would conduct a search for his replacement. AIT, founded in 1990 by Evans, then an Indiana University School of Medicine professor, caught fire about 10 years ago when it became the nation’s pioneer in urine drug tests to help doctors monitor patients taking narcotics for chronic pain. But AIT has been in turnaround mode after failing to respond quickly to deep cuts in Medicare reimbursement rates for basic drug tests. In 2009, Evans sold the company to employees for $90 million, with payments to him staggered over a number of years.
Community Health Network and Johnson Memorial Health opened the doors to a new health pavilion that will house doctors from both Community Physician Network and Johnson Memorial Physician Network, including specialists in family medicine, pediatrics, orthopedics, women’s health and general surgery. The facility will also offer walk-in lab testing, an imaging center, and physical and occupational therapy. Indianapolis-based Community and Franklin-based Johnson Memorial formed a partnership two years ago.
Roche to cut local jobs after diabetes-care sales plunge
Roche’s diabetes care unit, which employs more than 900 in Indianapolis, suffered a 14-percent decline in revenue during the first half of 2013. Roche has reportedly put the unit up for sale.
Already a wreck, the worst is yet to come with Obamacare
Obamacare is destined to fail for one key reason: it will make health insurance cost more and buy less.
WIBC-FM fills vacant drive-time slot
Conservative duo “Chicks on the Right” set to fill slot vacated by Ed Wenck in March at city’s top talk station.
SAXTON: Hospitals launch into downward spiral
The recent cutbacks sweeping central Indiana hospital systems are part of a larger epidemic affecting the entire U.S. health care system.
Indy Eleven coach: Team, game ‘bigger than one community’
Carmel resident Juergen Sommer traveled the globe as a professional soccer player before hanging up his cleats more than a decade ago. Now he’s at the helm of Indiana’s newest pro sports team.
KRUGMAN: Sprawl strands those least able to travel
Detroit is a symbol of the old economy’s decline. The metropolitan area lost population between 2000 and 2010, the worst performance among major cities. Atlanta, by contrast, epitomizes the rise of the Sun Belt; it gained more than 1 million people.
SIDDIQUI: Tone down the education reform rhetoric
Indianapolis is home to three amazing institutions that try to improve public school education—The Mind Trust, Teach for America and IUPUI School of Education—but reform rhetoric is hurting their efforts.
STYRING: Conservatives, retake the ‘liberal’ flag!
When Gov. Mike Pence was Indiana Policy Review Foundation president in the 1990s, editors of the foundation’s flagship publication, Indiana Policy Review, constantly harped at their writers to use precise English. The masthead even sported a Lord Acton quote: “When words lose their meaning, men lose their liberty.”
SHEPARD: Praise for local Zimmerman response
We hope society’s leaders will do well for us in times of turmoil. In the days following the verdict in the Florida trial of George Zimmerman, this state’s public figures responded to a difficult moment in ways that showed humanity and skill.
Company news
Indianapolis-based ApeX Therapeutics Inc. has raised $2.5 million to fund clinical trials of an experimental childhood leukemia drug. The fundraising, disclosed in a filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission, was partly funded by Indianapolis-based BioCrossroads’ Indiana Seed Fund II. ApeX’s drugs are based on the work of Mark Kelley, a researcher at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
WellPoint Inc. CEO Joe Swedish predicted July 24 that the Indianapolis-based company’s operating revenue will soar nearly 27 percent over the next three years, to a whopping $90 billion, up from about $71 billion this year. He added that he expected the revenue growth to also come with compounded growth in annual profit of 4 percent to 6 percent per year—even before any acquisitions. Previously, there were concerns both inside and outside WellPoint because a huge portion of the company's profit comes from its plethora of small employer customers. With Obamacare creating new online exchanges later this year for those small employers, it looked like WellPoint would struggle to compete with more health insurers and in unfamiliar markets, just to hold its profit steady. But now, most health insurers are just focusing on the local markets where they are already strong, WellPoint officials said—rather than trying to steal business from their peers. And WellPoint thinks its well-recognized brand and established relationships in local markets will win the day in the exchanges. In addition, WellPoint expects growth to come as half of the 14 states in which WellPoint operates its Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans expand their Medicaid programs. WellPoint’s 2012 acquisition of Amerigroup Corp. is helping WellPoint move from an employer-focused company to one with a competitive business for managing government-funded health plans.
Sales grew but profit fell in the second quarter at Dow AgroSciences LLC, the company reported July 25. The Indianapolis-based ag biotech firm racked up nearly $1.9 billion in revenue in the quarter, an increase of 10 percent from the same period a year earlier. Quarterly profit totaled $290 million before accounting for interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization—down from last year’s second-quarter record of $307 million. Sales of crop-protection products rose 12 percent, driven by large gains in Latin America, where sales of new crop-protection products grew 14 percent. Dow AgroSciences is a unit of Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co.
Zimmer Holdings Inc. saw second-quarter earnings slump 29 percent as the orthopedic-device maker set aside an additional $47 million to cover the cost of lawsuits related to its Durom hip cups, according to the Associated Press. The Warsaw-based company stopped marketing the products in 2008 and has put more than $400 million in reserve to cover potential legal costs, including $108 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. Earnings fell to $152.1 million, or 89 cents per share, from $214.5 million, or $1.22 per share, a year ago. If the legal reserve charge and other one-time items are excluded, Zimmer said, its earnings rose to $1.43 per share from $1.34 per share. Revenue increased 4 percent, to $1.2 billion. Zimmer narrowed its profit guidance for the year and now expects to earn $5.70 to $5.80 per share. The company had previously projected adjusted profit of $5.65 to $5.85 per share.
Eli Lilly and Co. earned $1.2 billion in the second quarter, an increase of 31 percent compared with the same quarter last year, the drugmaker reported July 24. Earnings per share totaled $1.11, compared with 83 cents a year ago. Because it outperformed analysts’ expectations, Lilly hiked up its profit expectations for the year by a range of 13 cents to 18 cents per share. The company now expects to earn $4.28 to $4.38 for the year. In the second quarter, Lilly was able to boost its sales 6 percent worldwide, to $5.9 billion. Lilly’s best-selling drug, the antidepressant Cymbalta, is set to lose its U.S. patent protection in December, after which its sales will switch to cheaper generics. Sales of Cymbalta grew 22 percent in the second quarter, to nearly $1.5 billion. Lilly is hoping to win approval on new diabetes and cancer drugs to offset those coming hits to its sales. Lilly expects a 20-percent reduction in revenue in 2014 because of the U.S. expiration of the Cymbalta and Evista patents.
WellPoint Inc. earned $2.64 per share in the second quarter, the health insurer reported July 24. Excluding investment gains, WellPoint earned $2.60 per share, a 27.5-percent increase over the same quarter a year ago. WellPoint raised its full-year profit forecast 20 cents per share, excluding the impact of investments, to $8 per share. Overall profit for the quarter rose 24 percent from a year ago, to $800.1 million, as WellPoint’s customers continued to file modest amounts of medical claims. WellPoint spent 83.9 percent of its premium revenue on claims, a tick higher than in the first quarter but well below its predicted level of 85.5 percent for the year. WellPoint’s revenue for the quarter rose 16 percent, to $17.8 billion. WellPoint provided health benefits for 35.7 million Americans at the end of June, more than any other company in the United States.
ALTOM: Relax, your cell phone isn’t out to get you
Don’t believe the stories of danger and destruction. Cell phones in America aren’t likely to explode in your ear.