The British Supreme Court ruled in favor of Human Genome Sciences Inc. in its dispute with Eli Lilly and Co. over the validity of a patent for a gene sequence that could be used to treat people with immune diseases.
The grant is the fifth consecutive five-year grant the Alzheimer Disease Center has received from NIH to support research to understand the causes and potential treatments for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
She founded the city’s largest public relations agency and has become a force in the not-for-profit world.
As an Eli Lilly and Co. lobbyist in Washington, D.C., Jay Bonitt is hoping the Congressional “super committee” charged with trimming the federal budget doesn’t turn to the Medicare prescription drug program, known as Part D, to do so. Bonitt, Lilly's vice president of federal affairs, said the program is under budget and helps spur drugmakers to further innovation.
What a difference a decade makes. Ten years ago, Eli Lilly and Co. stationed trucks filled with Xigris packages around the country, ready to rush supplies of the severe sepsis medicine to hospitals as soon as it won market approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. With the company having lost patent protection on its bestseller Prozac earlier that year, Lilly was desperate to get a new drug on the market. And Xigris, perceived as a breakthrough in a completely unserved market, was thought to be the ticket. Analysts thought the drug would generate as much as $2 billion per year in sales. But last week, Lilly announced it would pull Xigris from the market after a new study showed the drug failed to reduce mortality in patients. In between, Xigris never lived up to its hype. The FDA approved it for a narrower use, limiting its sales. Xigris generated $104 million in revenue last year. In May, Lilly licensed U.S. marketing rights for Xigris to a start-up company, BioCritica Inc.
WellPoint Inc.’s challenge of rate-increase reductions by insurance regulators in Maine will soon reach that state’s highest court—and could have ramifications across the country, according to a report by Kaiser Health News and the Washington Post. WellPoint’s subsidiary, Anthem Health Plans of Maine, will argue Nov. 10 before the Maine Supreme Court that the premium rate increases approved by Maine regulators were "inadequate," because they reduced its built-in profit margin of 3 percent to zero in 2009, 0.5 percent in 2010 and 1 percent this year. If the court sides with WellPoint, the decision "has the potential to destabilize a key aspect of insurance regulation and will have far reaching effects impacting all states,” according to a brief filed in support of the Maine regulators by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. And if WellPoint loses, it could encourage regulators in other states to make similarly aggressive rate reductions. WellPoint also sees national ramifications. The company is spreading the cost of the litigation to policyholders outside of Maine because the outcome could have "a big impact on the industry and not just Anthem," a company official testified during a hearing in April.
Purdue and Indiana universities will share a National Institutes of Health grant to launch a cancer advocacy network and for research on applying systems-engineering principles to cancer prevention and treatment. The $500,000 grant was awarded to Purdue and IU through their joint Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute project. As part of the project, Purdue and IU staff will identify and train recruiters to get more patients enrolled in clinical trials of new cancer treatments.
Third-quarter profit fell nearly 8 percent at WellPoint Inc. but exceeded expectations of Wall Street analysts. WellPoint earned $683.2 million or $1.90 per share. Excluding investment gains, the company would have earned $1.77 per share, 3 cents higher than in the third quarter last year. Analysts were expecting $1.68 per share, excluding investment gains, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. WellPoint’s operating revenue in the quarter rose nearly 6 percent, to $15.16 billion, narrowly topping analysts’ forecast of $15.12 billion. The company pleased analysts by adding 169,000 new members to its insurance plan during the quarter.
Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences on Thursday reported record third-quarter sales of $1.2 billion, up 27 percent from the same period a year ago. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were $75 million in the quarter ended Sept. 30, reversing a $12 million loss through greater volume and higher prices. Dow Agro is a unit of Midland, Mich.-based Dow Chemical Co.
Indianapolis-based drugmaker can now market lung cancer drug as a continuation maintenance therapy, potentially boosting sales after recent loss of patent on bestseller Zyprexa.
On Oct. 24, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first generic versions of Eli Lilly and Co.’s best-seller, ending 15 years of highly lucrative sales.
Analysts have eyes on trial data for drug that could be a game-changer for the company.
RND Group fills development gaps for companies.
Eli Lilly and Co. said it will pull its Xigris sepsis drug from all markets after the treatment failed to reduce mortality in a study. The withdrawal may cost Lilly $75 million to $95 million in the fourth quarter.
Federal health officials on Monday approved the first generic versions of the blockbuster drug Zyprexa, which posted sales of $5.7 billion last year for Indianapolis-based drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co Inc.
Lilly’s patent-loss challenges—the biggest of which takes effect today—will force the company to rely even more on its 1,300 Indiana vendors.
A few years back, the Indianapolis-based American College of Sports Medicine created the American Fitness Index, ranking the 50 largest U.S. metro areas. To no surprise, the Indianapolis area has never ranked well—coming in 44th last year and 45th this year. But now, the College of Sports Medicine is piloting a program—in Indianapolis and Oklahoma City—that will try to do something about it. The college, which includes physicians, researchers and other health professionals, will interview leaders in both cities to identify key areas for action, then offer expert assistance to launch efforts to boost physical activity, and try to reduce rates of smoking, obesity and other maladies. The goal is to add four additional cities in 2012 and 2013 each, bringing the total to 10 communities that will receive tailored technical assistance. The Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation and the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis are both supporting the pilot.
BioCrossroads’ Indiana Seed Fund has invested $300,000 in a startup company developing an absorbable stent to treat cardiovascular disease. Zorion Medical is chaired by former Eli Lilly and Co. executive David Broecker, who has moved to Indianapolis from Boston. Broecker, a Wabash College graduate in chemistry and mathematics, previously was president and CEO of Cambridge, Mass.-based biopharmaceutical company Alkermes Inc. Broecker also is CEO of BioCritica Inc., a locally based firm founded last May that acquired commercialization rights to Lilly’s Xigris, a drug to treat the blood infection sepsis. Zorion developed a stent that can be absorbed into the body—as opposed to existing stents made of metal. The biomaterial also can deliver drugs to help heal the artery.
Los Angeles-based CBRE Inc. says Indiana University Health is cheating it out of commissions related to several real estate deals in Indianapolis, Lafayette, Frankfort and Mooresville. Most notable is IU Health’s canceled plan for a $73 million administrative office building at 16th Street and Capitol Avenue, which would have been built near a $120 million neuroscience hub across the street from IU Health's Methodist Hospital campus. IU Health instead purchased the Gateway Tower plaza at 10th and Illinois streets to house administrative staff. Officials told IBJ in March the price was so good on Gateway Plaza—where the hospital system already rents 130,000 square feet—that they couldn’t refuse. Attorneys for IU Health declined to comment because the ligitation is pending.
The California-based St. Baldrick’s Foundation, which raises money for childhood cancer research, awarded a $145,566 grant to Dr. Jodi Skiles, a pediatric researcher at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Her research, conducted in the United States and in Kenya, will focus on developing individualized dosing regimens of vincristine, a core anticancer agent used in many childhood cancers, which reaches toxic levels for some patients much more quickly than others.
BioCrossroads’ Indiana Seed Fund has invested $300,000 in a startup company chaired by a former Eli Lilly and Co. executive developing an absorbable stent.
The Indianapolis-based drugmaker earned $1.24 billion in the three months ended Sept. 30, down 5 percent from the same quarter a year ago, even as revenue surged 9 percent.
Eli Lilly and Co. and Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s Byetta has received expanded approval for use with the world’s top-selling insulin to treat Type 2 diabetes.
Sherry Keramidas, who earned her doctorate in neuroscience and physiological psychology from Purdue University, is executive director of the Maryland-based Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society, which is holding its annual conference Oct. 22-26 at the Indiana Convention Center.
Dr. Nicholas M. Barbaro has been named chairman of the department of neurological surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the first medical director of the new Indiana University Health Neurosciences Center of Excellence. Barbaro will join IU on Nov. 1 after departing the University of California-San Francisco medical school, where he oversees neurosurgery residents and is conducting a federally funded study of epilepsy. Barbaro will succeed Dr. Paul Nelson, who is retiring.
Tom Laux will step down in March as CEO of Indiana University Health Morgan Hospital in Martinsville. Laux has led the county-owned hospital since 1999 and engineered its merger with Indianapolis-based IU Health.
Dr. Bill VanNess will retire at the end of 2012 as CEO of Community Hospital Anderson. VanNess, an Anderson native and family physician, has led the hospital, which is affiliated with Indianapolis-based Community Health Network, since 1997.
Bryce Carmine, president of Eli Lilly and Co.’s bio-medicines division, and Frank Deane, president of Lilly’s global manufacturing operations, both will retire on Dec. 31. They have worked at the Indianapolis-based drugmaker for 36 and 33 years, respectively. Dave Ricks, president of Lilly’s U.S. subsidiary, will become chief of the bio-medicines unit. That division oversees sales in the United States, Europe and Japan of some of Lilly’s most lucrative drugs, including the antipsychotic Zyprexa, the antidepressant Cymbalta and the anti-impotence pill Cialis. Succeeding Deane will be Maria Crowe, now senior vice president for global drug product manufacturing. Lilly also announced that Alex Azar, its vice president of U.S. managed health care services, will replace Ricks as head of Lilly USA.
The Mind Trust is laying plans to hand out up to five $1 million grants next June to teams of educational entrepreneurs who would use the money to develop and launch innovative charter schools in Indianapolis.
One of the city’s largest and oldest law firms said Wednesday that it has completed its merger with Minneapolis-based Faegre & Benson LLP. It will operate as Faegre Baker Daniels beginning Jan. 1.
