The university is hoping to find a private company to take over the 5-year-old facility, which formulated and manufactured
small batches of drugs used in clinical trials.
Company news
A federal judge in Minnesota rejected Guidant Corp.'s guilty plea to charges it hid defects in heart
defibrillators, after some doctors and patients complained about the deal, Bloomberg News reported. Guidant is a coronary
products company spun off from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. in the 1990s and acquired by Boston Scientific
in 2006. Boston Scientific agreed to plead guilty and pay $296 million to settle the case brought by the U.S. Department of
Justice. But U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank suggested the company should be placed on probation for failing to disclose
defects with its heart devices to regulators. Prosecutors said in court papers that Guidant officials learned as early as
2002 that some of the implantable defibrillators had a tendency to short-circuit and caused users’ deaths. The company
didn’t disclose the defects for more than three years, the government said.
The first phase of a $65 million expansion opened Tuesday at Marquette, a retirement facility located south
of St. Vincent Hospital on Township Line Road. The expansion is designed to appeal to more active seniors, and includes a
bistro, performing-arts venue, a putting green and exercise facilities with a full-time trainer. A second phase of the expansion,
to be completed later this summer, will include 48 apartments.
The Health Foundation of Greater Indianapolis gave $1 million to Wishard Health Services
to help it purchase software to better coordinate care for pediatric asthma patients. The program provides coaching and educational
materials for children with asthma in coordination with their primary-care providers, including school clinics. The software,
known as RelayHealth Virtual Information Exchange, will electronically deliver patient-education materials to patients in
the pediatric asthma program, with easy-to-understand illustrations and animations. Eventually, Wishard hopes to use the software
to allow patients to schedule appointments, obtain prescription refills and have electronic visits with health care professionals.
The Lifeline helicopter medical service is starting to replace the aircraft it uses for emergency flights across much of
Indiana, according to the Associated Press. Indianapolis-based Clarian Health is buying four new helicopters
to replace aging ones. Lifeline program director Shelly Maersch says the new helicopters will have safety enhancements, with
the pilots being able to use night-vision goggles. The new helicopters also will allow for rear loading and not vibrate as
much. The first new helicopter will be stationed at Howard Regional Hospital in Kokomo. Lifeline also has regional bases in
Lafayette, Muncie, Columbus and Terre Haute.
Purdue University’s decision to close the Chao Center in West Lafayette is a setback for Indiana’s effort to grow
a vibrant contract drug manufacturing sector. But it’s just the latest in a series of unexpected changes—not all for
the worse—since Indianapolis-based BioCrossroads launched a contract drug manufacturing initiative in late 2007.
A federal judge has rejected Guidant Corp.'s guilty plea to charges it hid defects in heart defibrillators, after some
doctors and patients complained about the $296 million deal.
The Purdue Research Foundation says the Chao Center for Industrial Pharmacy and Contract Manufacturing was unable to become
self-sustaining in part because of the recession.
The 25-year-old Prince/Alexander architecture firm is on the path to being acquired by Dallas-based REES Associates, an employee-owned
firm with 120 architects.
The upstart developer of a device to help doctors choose the right-sized stent to prop open clog-prone arteries has brought
aboard former Guidant Corp. executives, including Bill McConnell. Their regulatory and marketing expertise could help FlowCo Inc. bring its artery-measurement
product to market as soon as 2011.
I got involved in restoration projects more than 30 years ago when a serious cardiac illness sidelined me from my medical-device
business.
A proposal that would have weakened Eli Lilly and Co.’s defenses against an unwanted takeover failed to pass April 19 at the company’s annual meeting of shareholders. The proposal to remove an 80-percent approval threshold for takeover bids against the wishes of Lilly’s board received approval from shareholders owning 74 percent of Lilly’s shares. But […]
Drug prices rose faster last year than they have in a decade—just in time for big rebates the drug industry promised
as part of the health reform law.
The national unemployment rate for college graduates age 25 and older was 4.9 percent in March, up from 4.4 percent a year
ago, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
The proposal to remove an 80-percent approval threshold for takeover bids against the wishes of Lilly’s board received
approval from shareholders holding 74 percent of Lilly’s shares.
Eli Lilly and Co. will repurchase rights to develop and market antidepressant Cymbalta outside the U.S. and Japan from European
partner Boehringer Ingelheim for an initial payment of $400 million.
Lilly shareholders are set to gather Monday in Indianapolis to hear an update on the company’s performance, including
how it will keep paying its generous dividend during the lean years after Zyprexa’s patent expiration.
The Indianapolis-based drugmaker also lowered its forecast for full-year profits because the new health care law grants bigger
rebates on prescription drugs to federal health insurance programs.
As shareholders gather April 19 for Eli Lilly and Co.’s annual meeting, more of them than ever will come with an unusual question:
Will Lilly be able to keep paying its dividend?
Historic Landmarks' endowment is down sharply, but executives believe they can afford to take on the cultural-events-center
project.
Indianapolis-based Strand Analytical Laboratories LLC sold its paternity and immigration DNA testing unit
to Orchid Cellmark Inc., a New Jersey company with annual revenue of $450,000. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Beginning in late June, Eli Lilly and Co. will move all 1,000 employees at its Faris campus on South Meridian
Street in Indianapolis to its Lilly Corporate Center complex on McCarty Street. Lilly’s ongoing staff cuts have reduced
its need for the Faris space, and the Indianapolis company wants to locate its employees on the same campus as part of a new
business structure. The company hired CB Richard Ellis in August to lease the 465,000 square feet on the Faris campus. Lilly
first said in October that it would move all 1,000 employees out of the Faris complex. The campus opened in late 2002.
Purdue University has received $14.9 million in federal stimulus funding from the National Institutes of
Health to expand its Bindley Bioscience Center for cancer and life sciences research in West Lafayette. Purdue expects to
hire 30 to 40 people to conduct federally funded research on animals at the center once the expansion opens in April 2013.
The 29,000-square-foot addition will be called the Multidisciplinary Cancer Research Facility at Purdue. Construction is set
to begin in August. The Bindley Bioscence Center, located on Purdue’s Discovery Park research campus, opened in 2005.
The existing facility is 50,000 square feet.
Work force reductions, new business structure make leased office space unnecessary. Moves will begin in late June.
Once-weekly form of Byetta is awaiting the FDA’s OK. Analyst predict the new version of the drug, if approved, could rack
up sales of $2 billion annually.
