Eli Lilly and Co. suffered a delay in its effort to bring an Alzheimer’s drug to market this month, but it also published new research that the pharmaceutical company thinks confirms it is on the right track.
Chicago-based OkCopay Inc. posts prices offered by Indianapolis health care providers, many of which have agreed to give cash-paying patients a price roughly equivalent to those charged to insured customers. The site also includes pricing information from health care providers that do not give cash-paying patients an additional break.
State officials are expected to sign off on a one-year extension of the Healthy Indiana Plan started by Gov. Mitch Daniels, sparing the program’s roughly 40,000 enrollees a lapse in coverage, according to the Associated Press. Family and Social Services Administration spokeswoman Marni Lemons said the state received the needed paperwork from the federal government on Dec. 13. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services agreed to a waiver that would allow the state to continue the program unchanged for a year, Lemons said. The HIP program offers health savings accounts to the working poor, requiring them in most cases to pay a monthly contribution to their savings accounts. The Daniels administration had sought a three-year extension of the program via the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' waiver process, but the federal government replied in July with an offer of one year and a request that the state end mandatory contributions from enrollees. Lemons said the new offer allows Indiana to continue collecting a monthly contribution, but did not say why CMS reversed its position.
Milliman Inc., an actuarial and consulting firm, announced Friday morning that it plans to add 26 jobs in Indianapolis by 2017 as part of a $2 million expansion. The Seattle-based company, which has 54 offices worldwide, said the investment will go toward installing additional technology at its 25,000-square-foot office in downtown’s Chase Tower. Milliman already had 55 employees at the location and has begun hiring additional actuarial consultants. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. said it will provide Milliman up to $400,000 in performance-based tax credits and up to $97,000 in training grants based on the company's job-creation plans. Milliman has had a presence in Indianapolis since 1965.
A south-side entrepreneur unveiled plans Thursday to convert the old St. Francis Hospital in Beech Grove into a $20 million mixed-use senior-living development. Joe Wolfla, who helped lead the reintroduction last year of the chocolate beverage Choc-ola, announced the project at a Beech Grove Chamber of Commerce event. Dubbed Franciscan Place, the development will feature 150-plus apartments, shops and a restaurant in the old hospital. Wolfla purchased the 14-acre site from Franciscan St. Francis for $10. The property became available in March after the Catholic hospital system ended all inpatient operations at the facility. Franciscan announced five years ago that it would consolidate its Beech Grove operations into an expanded facility seven miles south, near Interstate 65 and Emerson Avenue. The Beech Grove hospital was founded in 1914 by the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, an order of nuns based in Mishawaka. But it fell victim to the need for hospitals to attract patients using private health insurance, which pays generous prices compared to government-sponsored health plans such as Medicare and Medicaid.
Eli Lilly and Co. last week halted one clinical trial for a rheumatoid arthritis drug and announced a new trial for an Alzheimer’s drug. Both moves are potential setbacks for the Indianapolis-based drugmaker's product pipeline. Lilly stopped one of three Phase 3 trials it was conducting on the drug tabalumab, because it failed to show efficacy against rheumatoid arthritis. The other two trials are proceeding, but Lilly is holding off on enrolling new patients until more analyses are finished early next year. Lilly is still evaluating tabalumab in systemic lupus erythematosus. The company said it expects to take a pretax charge of $20 million to $35 million in the fourth quarter, or about 2 cents a share after tax. Lilly also announced that it needs to run another Phase 3 trial of its experimental Alzheimer's treatment solanezumab. That means it will likely take another five years before Lilly can launch solanezumab—assuming the new trial confirms and strengthens the signs that the drug helps slow the progression of Alzheimer’s in patients with mild forms of the disease. Lilly said the study will begin no later than the third quarter of 2013. With many other companies also testing Alzheimer’s drugs in Phase 3 trials, the delay means another company could beat Lilly in its quest to launch the first drug to successfully reverse the course of the memory-sapping disease.
The Central Indiana Corporate Partnership might announce a successor to CEO Mark Miles as early as Dec. 18, just a month after Miles said he was leaving to become CEO of Hulman & Co.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. is looking to renew its commitment to life sciences by creating a $30 million venture fund. The amount dedicated to one sector would be equal to the state’s allocation for all high-tech startups over the past two years.
Eli Lilly and Co. said it discontinued a last-stage trial of experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug tabalumab for lack of efficacy. Lilly is still evaluating the drug in the two other late-stage studies.
Gov. Mitch Daniels said Wednesday he has been hearing from companies that fear that a measure that would put Indiana's ban on same-sex marriage into the state constitution might also prevent firms from offering benefits to gay couples.
Eli Lilly will launch another study of its possible Alzheimer's treatment solanezumab, a move that delays a regulatory decision on a drug that flashed potential to help patients with mild cases of the fatal disease.
While Eli Lilly and Co.’s stock price is up 16 percent in the past four months, a new analyst covering the company thinks it has more room to grow. And that’s even without launching a new Alzheimer’s drug anytime soon.
Richard DiMarchi helped develop the sepsis-treating drug Xigris for Eli Lilly and Co. He also co-founded Marcadia Biotech, which Roche acquired in 2010 for an initial upfront payment of $287 million.
Eli Lilly and Co. notified Canada it plans to file a trade complaint, claiming court decisions invalidating one of the company’s patents breach international obligations.
I realized that my original vision of the American Dream was a nightmare. I learned that there is more to business than the money earned.
The Indiana Historical Society has raised $19.5 million to support the Indiana Experience, its series of interactive history lessons intended to draw more visitors to the local not-for-profit’s downtown facility.
State Health Commissioner Dr. Greg Larkin will become chief medical officer of Indianapolis-based OurHealth, a provider of employer on-site clinic services, after he ends his service with the state in early January. Gov. Mitch Daniels, who is leaving office in January, appointed Larkin to the position in 2010, replacing Dr. Judy Monroe. Larkin previously spent much of his career as Eli Lilly and Co.’s director of corporate health service and served as global medical director. After retiring from Lilly in 2007, Larkin served as the first chief medical officer of the Indiana Health Information Exchange, which promotes health information technology for the advancement of patient and community care.
Terri S. Ruff has been appointed executive director of Franciscan St. Francis Heart Center, starting on Jan. 6. Ruff will succeed Michael Hertel, who had led the heart center since 2006. Since 2002, Ruff has overseen all radiological programs at Franciscan St. Francis Health. Ruff holds a bachelor’s degree in health arts, a master’s degree in health care administration and an MBA from the University of St. Francis.
Indiana University Health Orthopedics and Sports Medicine named Dr. Walter Virkus as its director of orthopedic trauma services. He will be based at IU Health’s Methodist Hospital. Virkus spent the last 12 years in Chicago at Rush University Medical Center. He also served as chairman of orthopedics at the Stroger Hospital of Cook County. Virkus holds a bachelor’s degree from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa., and a medical degree from the New Jersey Medical School in Newark.
Dr. Todd McKinley, an orthopedic trauma surgeon, has joined IU Health Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. Before joining IU Health, McKinley served as a professor and orthopedic surgeon for trauma services at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He earned his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering and mechanics from the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology and received his medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School.
Dr. Anthony Sorkin, an orthopedic trauma surgeon, has joined IU Health Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. Before joining IU Health, Sorkin served as director of orthopedic traumatology for Rockford Orthopedics, an orthopedic multi-specialty physician group, and as a professor at both Rush University Medical Center and the University of Illinois College of Medicine. He earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Miami and received his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Dr. Michael Zlowodzki, an orthopedic trauma surgeon, has joined IU Health Orthopedics and Sports Medicine. He earned his medical degree from the University of Hamburg in Germany and his doctorate from Humboldt University in Berlin.
St. Vincent Medical Group recruited three orthopedic surgeons to provide care at Monroe Hospital in Bloomington, St. Vincent Dunn Hospital in Bedford and St. Vincent Jennings Hospital in North Vernon. The practice of Dr. Michael Ferrell, Dr. John Hammerstein and Dr. Brian Murphy will change its name from PremierOrtho to St. Vincent Medical Group Orthopedics and Sports Medicine, and will be based in Bloomington. Ferrell is a former commander in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps. He did his medical training at Virginia Commonwealth University. Hammerstein and Murphy did their medical training at the Indiana University Medical School.
Dr. Gregory N. Larkin, appointed commissioner of the Indiana State Department of Health by Gov. Mitch Daniels in 2010, will leave his position in January to become medical director of OurHealth, an employer on-site clinic company.
China takes eight years longer on average to approve drugs than other major countries, and U.S. drugmakers are looking at ways to help speed things up, Eli Lilly and Co. CEO John Lechleiter said.
NoviaCare Clinics LLC, which operates on-site clinics for employers, is gradually pitching a new constellation of services, which it calls Total Patient Experience, to its 85 clients. The effort is one of a few initiatives to get employers to push deeper to address the causes of their workers’ health problems. Indianapolis-based NoviaCare is negotiating contracts with financial counselors, substance abuse counselors, mental health counselors and physical therapists who can be called in to its employer clinics to help address the underlying causes of patients’ health issues. So far, NoviaCare has signed up Batesville Tool & Dye and Hillenbrand Inc. to use the physical therapy portion of its service. NoviaCare hopes employers come to embrace its entire suite of services down the road.
The number of serious medical errors at hospitals and nursing homes fell to 100 last year from 107 in 2010, according to the Indiana State Health Department's 2011 Medical Errors report. According to a report by WTHR-TV Channel 13, the most common errors were severe bed sores, followed by surgery on the wrong body part, and foreign objects left after surgery. Indiana University Health’s three downtown hospitals reported 14 errors, the highest number in the state. But those hospitals also see more patients than any other in the report. Nearly a third of the state's hospitals reported at least one error.
Eli Lilly and Co. gave $12.4 million to the United Way, a slight uptick from its United Way gift from last year. The donation represents the contributions of Lilly’s U.S. employees and retirees, plus a matching gift from the Eli Lilly and Company Foundation. The funds will help support the United Way of Central Indiana as well as other local United Way chapters around the country. Also, the Lilly Foundation gave $200,000 to the American Red Cross to provide disaster relief to victims of superstorm Sandy.
Endocyte is an Indiana biopharmaceutical company that develops drugs and imaging diagnostics to identify and treat cancer.
