State Auditor Dwayne Sawyer—former president of the Brownsburg Town Council and the first black Republican to serve in a statewide office—said he was stepping down due to “family and personal concerns.”
IU Health, the state’s fourth-largest employer, said it was opposing a proposed amendment against same-sex marriage for health-related reasons.
Indianapolis Vex Robotics Competition is designed to buttress science, technology, engineering and math skills.
Those of us living in the Indianapolis area certainly have a lot to be thankful for, including these reasons:
The National Science Foundation awarded Indiana University’s Bloomington campus more than $614,000 to recruit, support and retain undergraduate students majoring in astronomy, biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics over the next five years. Nearly 85 percent of the money will be used for student scholarships. The so-called S-STEM Program—Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math—aims to put college students on a path to pursue further education and careers in key science and math-based fields. The program also tries to connect students, faculty and local professionals from all the science- and math-based disciplines. “This program focuses on the development of a community of STEM scholars who will engage students in preparation for a successful career in these fields,” said IU’s dean of the college of arts and sciences, Larry Singell. The initial round of scholarships will fund students enrolled for the spring 2014 semester.
A federal judge in Indianapolis temporarily blocked restrictions on abortions induced by medicine scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, while a lawsuit filed by Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky Inc. proceeds. The dispute involves a law passed by the General Assembly this year, which requires abortion clinics that use only medications—not surgical procedures—to add procedure and recovery rooms, as well as surgical equipment. Only the Planned Parenthood clinic in Lafayette meets that description. But the law allows office-based physicians to continue prescribing abortion-inducing medications without adding the additional rooms and equipment. U.S. District Court Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson said Nov. 27 the state had not provided an adequate basis for making such a distinction between abortion clinics and physicians’ offices.
Indiana University Health joined a growing list of businesses and organizations proclaiming public opposition to a proposed state constitutional amendment that would reinforce Indiana’s ban on same-sex marriage. IU Health, the state’s largest hospital system and the state’s fourth-largest employer with about 26,000 workers, said it was taking the position for health-related reasons. “Research has demonstrated that unequal treatment of same-sex couples … adversely impacts their health and well-being,” IU Health said in a prepared statement. “As a leading health care provider in this state, IU Health must support efforts that reduce disparities and improve the overall health and well-being of its patients, their families and the community.” IU Health joined Eli Lilly and Co., Cummins Inc. and Emmis Communications Corp. as major employers opposing the amendment. Indiana, Ball State, Butler and DePauw universities and several other colleges also have voiced opposition. State lawmakers will begin considering the same-sex marriage ban in January. Supporters of limiting marriage to one man and one woman say a constitutional amendment is needed to keep the courts from legalizing gay marriage in Indiana. Thirty states have constitutional amendments banning legal recognition of same-sex marriage, and five others ban it by law.
The local developer’s purchase of the complex is part of a shift within the company to complement its traditional development business with acquired properties.
Novartis AG’s animal-health business is drawing interest from drugmakers including Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. and Merck & Co. as the Swiss pharmaceutical giant prepares to sell the unit, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. has joined two other companies to contribute $40 million to an early-stage life sciences venture capital initiative in New York City.
Next up is a renovation of the vacant Consolidated Building and a redevelopment of the Indianapolis Star headquarters property, both on North Pennsylvania Street. The projects will add 600 market-rate apartments to downtown.
Ted McKinney, who grew up on a family farm in Tipton County, will replace Gina Sheets, who’s leaving after a year on the job to do mission work in Liberia.
Edivoxetine, a derivative of Lilly's Strattera drug for attention deficit disorder, was in the final of three stages of testing usually required for marketing approval by U.S. regulators.
Indianapolis’ and Carmel’s work forces were so lacking in high-tech jobs in 2001 that the void led to breakneck-speed hiring over the past 12 years as the cities caught up—faster than almost any other place in the United States.
Indiana University Health hospitals and doctors could fall out of UnitedHealthcare’s discounted network on Jan. 1 if the two entities don’t come to an agreement by then. IU Health, the state’s largest hospital system, and UnitedHealthcare, the state’s second-largest health insurer, have been unable to come to terms on a new set of reimbursement contracts, according to both organizations. The previous contracts end Dec. 31. Such contracts between health systems and health insurers typically shave 30 percent or more off the list prices charged by hospitals and doctors. In notices sent to local benefits brokers late last month, Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare said the two organizations are wrangling over a reimbursement hike by IU Health and over how the new contracts will make more of that reimbursement hinge on measurements of clinical quality. The contract dispute could affect the roughly 400,000 Hoosiers that have employer-based or individually purchased insurance with UnitedHealthcare. That represents about 12 percent of the Indiana commercial market.
Medical workers, military personnel, hundreds of volunteers and a platoon of ambulances transferred 149 patients from Wishard Memorial Hospital on Saturday, the final day of service for the facility that dates as far back as World War I. Those patients were moved to the new Eskenazi Hospital, just four blocks away. The new $754 million hospital replaces Wishard as the county-owned hospital in Indianapolis. Construction on the art-filled, 315-bed Eskenazi Hospital began four years ago.
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. has joined two other companies to contribute $40 million to an early-stage life sciences venture capital initiative in New York City. New York economic development officials announced the effort to launch more life sciences companies last week. The city of New York will contribute $10 million, according to The Wall Street Journal, and will look to attract venture capital firms willing to put in another $50 million. The initiative hopes to launch 15 to 20 new life sciences companies in New York by 2020. Lilly operates a research and development center in New York focused on cancer, which it acquired in 2008 as part of its purchase of New York-based drug company ImClone Systems Inc. The two other companies contributing money are New Jersey-based biotech company Celgene Corp. and GE Ventures, the venture capital arm of Connecticut-based General Electric Co. The contributions of each company were not disclosed.
Eli Lilly and Co. will end development of the depression medicine edivoxetine as an add-on therapy after the drug failed to meet goals in three Phase 3 studies, according to Bloomberg News. The end of edivoxetine as a potential add-on therapy is another research setback for Lilly, which has had a cancer treatment, ramucirumab, fail in breast cancer patients, and an experimental compound prove unsuccessful in helping people with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. Edivoxetine had been expected to generate $560 million by 2020, said Seamus Fernandez, an analyst with Leerink Swann & Co. The decision to end the development as an add-on therapy will result in a pretax charge of $15 million, or 1 cent a share, in the fourth quarter, Lilly said. The company reaffirmed its 2013 forecasts and said it still plans to return to revenue growth in 2015.
Eli Lilly and Co. on Wednesday will fall off its second “patent cliff” in as many years as its best-selling drug Cymbalta sees its U.S. patents expire.
Cymbalta is Eli Lilly and Co. Inc.'s best-selling drug and posted 2012 sales of $4.7 billion, making it the fifth-highest selling medication in the world. The drug's patent expired Wednesday.
Since 1998, there have been more than 100 attempts to develop an Alzheimer’s treatment, and all have failed. Such a product may generate as much as $5 billion annually for Merck, according to analysts
Tom Fischer, chief financial and chief operating officer of Community Health Network, departed suddenly this month. Sources with knowledge of the situation described Fischer’s exit as a firing. But a Community spokeswoman said Fischer resigned in a private meeting with Community CEO Bryan Mills. Fischer, 60, who joined Community as CFO in 2005, declined to comment. Mills and Fischer have been close friends for decades, dating to the time they both worked for the Ernst & Young accounting firm. Now Holly Millard, Community’s chief accounting officer, is serving as interim CFO while Community searches for a replacement. Community is trying to cut expenses 15 percent to 20 percent, including via staff reductions. Community laid off more than 150 employees during the first nine months of this year, many of them part of what it described as a systemwide realignment. Community spokeswoman Lynda de Widt described the staff reductions as part of the normal course of business in an organization that has 13,000 employees. Community reported in late November that it had spent $5 million this year on severance costs.
Because Indianapolis-area hospitals have let go a wave of workers this year, the University of Indianapolis will host a seminar to help nurses and health care professionals search for new jobs. The seminar, “Reinventing Yourself: A Personal Transformation for Healthcare Workers” is scheduled from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Jan. 11 in UIndy’s Schwitzer Student Center at 1400 E. Hanna Ave. The free event is sponsored by UIndy’s School for Adult Learning, School of Nursing and College of Health Sciences, and will tout UIndy’s health-related educational programs. Also, John Vice, a longtime human resources manager for Eli Lilly and Co., will tell attendees how to pursue new career paths.
Nearly 2,800 Hoosiers selected a private insurance plan on the Obamacare exchange in November, nearly four times as many as did so in October. The faster pace of enrollment was mirrored in the other 35 states that are also relying on the federally run Healthcare.gov web site for online enrollment. The Obama administration worked feverishly in November to correct major technical problems with the website that prevented numerous Americans from enrolling. Even so, the pace of enrollment in the federal exchange will need to be nearly 12 times faster than it was in November if enrollment via the exchange is going to meet a federal projection of more than 4.8 million enrollees by the end of March. According to a report issued Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 137,204 actually selected a private health insurance plan during October and November, with about 110,000 of them doing so in November. In 14 states and the District of Columbia, which are operating their own insurance exchanges, enrollment also surged in November, to nearly 148,000 people, compared with about 80,000 in October. Enrollment via the state-based exchanges will need to triple its pace to meet an overall federal projection of 7 million enrollees via the Obamacare exchanges.
More than 10,000 low-income Indiana residents who participate in the Healthy Indiana Plan will be able to keep their benefits through April. The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration announced Dec. 10 it is extending for an extra three months its Healthy Indiana Plan to participants who earn between 100 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The move will give members more time to obtain coverage through the federal health care exchange. FSSA Secretary Debra Minott said many HIP members have struggled to enroll in the exchange because of technical issues. The HIP extension could cost Indiana up to $11 million.
Fifteen years after Pfizer Inc.’s Viagra changed the sexual equation for older men, the blockbuster impotence drug is set to become available in a less expensive generic form as early as 2017.
John Lechleiter, Angela Braly and two other local business leaders have pledged a combined $3 million to United Way of Central Indiana over the next four years. United Way is trying to raise $42.5 million by the end of the year.
Eli Lilly and Co., Pfizer Inc., Sanofi and other large drugmakers will keep paying doctors to give talks about their products, leaving GlaxoSmithKline Plc alone for now in its decision to halt such compensation.
