Colleagues of Gov. Mitch Daniels say Hoosiers should expect him to bring a familiar approach to his upcoming role at Purdue University: Do more with less, reward performance, find creative ways to tap new pools of money, and use warm folksy charm.
The Indianapolis-based education reform group The Mind Trust will announce June 25 that it is awarding $1 million apiece to Indianapolis-based Christel House Academy and Boston-based Phalen Leadership Academies to launch new charter schools in Indianapolis.
As expected, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels will become the next president of Purdue University when he leaves office in January. Purdue officials introduced Daniels as the school's new leader Thursday following a vote by the board of trustees.
A board of trustees dominated by Daniels' own appointees will select him as the university's 12th president Thursday, sources told IBJ and other news outlets. The appointment will add a dramatic new chapter to his diverse career.
The local pharmaceutical giant plans to complete the program started in 2000 by repurchasing $420 million in shares by the end of the year. And on Tuesday, it declared a regular dividend of 49 cents.
Mitch Daniels, Indiana's two-term governor, will succeed France Cordova as Purdue University president, a source told IBJ Tuesday morning.
The U.S. Supreme Court did not hand down a ruling in the health care reform case Monday morning. The nine justices meet again Thursday, but most observers expect the decision to come June 25 or June 28.
WellPoint Inc. lowered its 2012 profit forecast 23 cents per share, or nearly 3 percent, due to a $90 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit. Lawyers for former policyholders of Anthem Insurance Cos. Inc., the predecessor of Indianapolis-based WellPoint, disclosed the settlement Friday afternoon. Pending approval by a federal judge, the settlement would cover the claims of more than 700,000 former policyholders, whose stakes in Anthem were undervalued, according to the lawsuit, before the company’s 2001 conversion from a mutual insurance company into a publicly traded one. Because of the settlement, Anthem now expects to earn a 2012 profit of $7.57 per share, down from a previous estimate of $7.80 per share.
Hancock Regional Hospital is moving to acquire nearly 50 acres in McCordsville, even though it has no specific expansion plan. According to the Greenfield Daily Reporter, the hospital’s board of trustees approved spending up to $1.2 million for the 48.5-acre parcel in the Villages of Brookside development. Hancock Regional, based in Greenfield, has made a tentative offer for the land to its current owner, Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank. The offer hinges on an environmental assessment that is still under way. If the bid is accepted, said Rob Matt, Hancock Regional’s vice president of development, the land could become the location for additional medical office space, another wellness center or another surgery center. But in the short term, the hospital likely would lease the land for farming. “We’re not exactly sure what the future holds, but we think McCordsville is a great location for potential future expansion of a variety of health services,” Matt said. The land was part of a 300-acre development started in 2005. But the sections of the project that were marked off for business and apartments have been slow to develop because of the housing slump, financial crisis and recession.
Eli Lilly and Co. invested $20 million in a Chinese pharmaceutical company in an effort to build a portfolio of branded generic medicines in the fast-growing Asian market. Novast Laboratories Ltd., based north of Shanghai, received a $10 million initial investment from Indianapolis-based Lilly five years ago. The new money, announced June 12, will fund an expansion of Novast’s manufacturing capabilities. Lilly is working with Novast to develop a catalog of generic versions of medicines not created by Lilly that will be branded with the Lilly name. Down the road, Novast also may take on manufacturing responsibilities for new drugs Lilly launches in China and other Asian countries. Since 2009, Lilly has rapidly ramped up sales and research functions in China, and now employs more than 3,000 people there. In June, Lilly announced the opening of a research and development center in Shanghai focused exclusively on diabetes. It employs 150. Lilly's sales in China increased 31 percent last year, to nearly $420 million, according to company officials.
An Indian-born physician fired by St. Vincent Health is suing the hospital network in federal court on charges of discrimination and harassment. Seema Nayak filed her suit June 13 and is seeking past and future pay in addition to other damages for the hospital’s “malicious and/or reckless conduct.” St. Vincent officials did not return messages seeking comment on the suit. Nayak’s suit follows a complaint she filed in October 2010 with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which granted her the right to sue. Her employment contract was not renewed by the hospital in June 2010. She began her first-year residency program at St. Vincent in July 2007 in the obstetrics and gynecology department. Though Nayak exceeded performance standards during her first- and second-year residencies, according to the suit, she became the target of discrimination from other residents due to her accent and Indian origin. Later, her suit alleges, St. Vincent also pressured her to return to work quickly after taking maternity leave and then retaliated against her by giving her an especially difficult residency rotation.
Mayor Greg Ballard is giving the private sector its first shot at managing the City-County Building since the downtown structure opened 50 years ago. The city and county lease it from the Indianapolis-Marion County Building Authority, but Ballard’s office has posted a request for information from real estate firms interested in a 30-year operating agreement.
The Indianapolis Prize, administered by the Indianapolis Zoo and given every two years, claims to be the world’s richest individual award for animal conservation.
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. and other corporate heavyweights are applying for Web suffixes including .cialis, .walmart and .jpmorgan under a program to expand the number of Internet domain names beyond .com.
Performance varied widely as industries ebbed, flowed.
Indiana University divers searching the site of a 1725 shipwreck found the booty and other artifacts including musket balls and ceramics. The discovery was introduced to the public Tuesday at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis.
Eli Lilly and Co. has invested $20 million in Chinese pharmaceutical company Novast Labs in an effort to build up a portfolio of branded generic medicines in the fast-growing Asian market.
Eli Lilly and Co. announced positive results for an experiemental insulin at the annual American Diabetes Association conference in Philadelphia, but was still upstaged by Denmark-based Novo Nordisk A/S.
Elanco, the fast-growing animal health division of Eli Lilly and Co., wants to add 200 jobs at its headquarters in Greenfield, but says it needs taxpayer assistance to do it, according to the Greenfield Daily Reporter. Elanco asked the Greenfield City Council for a 10-year tax abatement on a $14 million expansion, which would add two buildings to the corporate campus Elanco opened in 2010. Elanco employs 475 workers there now, paying average slaries of $80,000. Elanco projects it would hire the 200 additional administrative employees—who would oversee the company’s marketing, manufacturing, finance and other operations—by the first half of 2015. The new jobs would pay on average $60,000 apiece. Elanco has been growing rapidly through both increased sales of its products for livestock and pets, as well as through acquisitions. Elanco’s revenue last year grew 21 percent to nearly $1.7 billion.
Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare revamped its myHealthcare Cost Estimator tool for its customers in Indianapolis and 46 other markets, and now provides cost estimates based on the health insurer's actual contracted rates with physicians, hospitals, clinics and other health care providers. The cost estimator tool covers more than 100 common treatments and procedures, factoring in a UnitedHealthcare member’s specific benefits plan. It also allows health plan members to compare cost and quality information between different hospitals and physicians. And the tool even points out alternative treatment options that a patient might consider. “myHealthcare Cost Estimator meets a longstanding consumer need for thorough but simple online comparison shopping for health care by putting relevant information right at people’s fingertips,” UnitedHealthcare's Yasmine Winkler, chief product and marketing officer, said in a prepared statement. Many health insurers are rolling out tools to help consumers gauge cost and quality before making decisions on health care. This year, Indianapolis-based Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield expanded to more than 100 the procedures its cost-comparison tool covers. Anthem also rolled out a program in which employers can give its workers a cash payment each time they use the cost comparison tool before seeking care.
Indiana medical device companies enjoyed at least a symbolic victory last week when the Republican-led House of Representatives voted to repeal the 2.3 percent medical device tax that was part of the 2010 health reform law. The tax, estimated to raise $29 billion over the next decade, is scheduled to take effect next year. Indiana has more than 300 medical device manufacturers, employing almost 20,000 people, including Zimmer Holdings Inc., Biomet Inc., Cook Group, DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., Hill-Rom Inc. and Roche Diagnostics Corp. The repeal is not likely to even come up for a vote in the Senate, and if it does, will almost certainly be defeated by the Democrat-controlled chamber. Also, a repeal of the tax likely faces a veto from President Obama. However, the repeal vote is a sign of Republicans’ attempts to scale back the health care law that passed without a single Republican vote. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this month on the law’s constitutionality.
Steve Downing is now on the board of Christamore House, where he and others once honed their hoops skills.
Sale to managers would alleviate problems for company’s 70-year-old namesake and keep firm from being seized by bank.
