Three promising efforts are under way in Indianapolis to unite the community and propel us forward. I hope we pursue each initiative with a sense of urgency and change the trajectory on our health, skills and economic prosperity.
A federal judge has ordered the Indiana Department of Correction to come to her courtroom Wednesday and explain its "precise plans" for improving the treatment of mentally ill prisoners.
It looks like Eli Lilly and Co. has a winner. The Indianpaolis-based drugmaker’s experimental diabetes drug dulaglutide helped patients with Type 2 diabetes lose weight while suffering only manageable side effects, according to Phase 3 clinical trial data released over the weekend at the American Diabetes Association meeting in Chicago. According to Bloomberg News, dulaglutide, if approved, may be a significant competitor to Novo Nordisk A/S’ Victoza, which generated $1.64 billion in 2012. A clinical trial comparing the drugs may report results by the end of the year. “We look at the space and we feel we have an opportunity to offer a significant new product,” said Sherry Martin, senior medical director for diabetes development at Indianapolis-based Lilly. The company plans to submit the drug to U.S. regulators for approval by the end of this year. Dulaglutide is projected to sell $835 million in 2018, according to the average of six analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Martin said the drug would be the only weekly injection in the class that doesn’t require patients to prepare the dose for administration.
The California Public Employees Retirement System saved $5.5 million, or 19 percent of its affected medical claims, under a two-year pilot project with Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. that steered patients away from high-cost health care providers that don’t produce better outcomes. WellPoint executives told Bloomberg News that the cost-capping, or reference-pricing, policy employed in the pilot program is now gaining momentum among employers. The California pension program, known as Calpers, became a partner in the pilot program after a WellPoint analysis found similar hip and knee surgeries cost anywhere from $15,000 to $110,000 per patient, with no difference in patient outcomes, according to Bloomberg. So in 2011, Calpers and WellPoint’s Anthem Blue Cross unit began steering patients toward 46 hospitals that agreed to keep their costs below $30,000—known as the program's “reference price.” If workers went to another provider, then they were responsible for any costs above $30,000. About 400 members opted for the designated hospitals in 2011, a 21-percent increase over previous years. Calpers’ in-patient costs for hip and knee surgeries dropped to an average of $28,695 from $35,400, according to WellPoint. The study was conducted by HealthCore, a research unit owned by WellPoint, and released Sunday at the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting in Baltimore.
Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine blocked the progression of Type 1 diabetes among newly diagnosed patients using a drug originally sold to treat psoriasis. In a clinical trial involving 49 patients, those who were given the drug alefacept (sold under the brand name Amevive) kept producing the same amount of insulin over the next year, while patients receiving a placebo saw their level of insulin drop over the same period. If the results are repeated in studies involving more patients, the drug could enable Type 1 diabetics to maintain some insulin production and avoid the debilitating complications caused by the disease, said Dr. Mark R. Rigby, a professor of pediatrics at the IU medical school. Nearly 3 million people are estimated to have Type 1 diabetes in the United States. Although the disease can be managed with insulin injections, it cannot be reversed or cured. Long-term complications can include visual impairment, heart disease, stroke, problems in the extremities leading to amputation, and other problems.
An Indiana University School of Medicine researcher has received a $3.8 million three-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study estrogen as a treatment for schizophrenia using an unreleased drug developed by Eli Lilly and Co. A team led by Dr. Alan Breier, a professor of psychiatry at the IU medical school, will use a drug discovered by Lilly scientists that mimics some of the actions of the hormone estrogen, but without many of the side effects, such as feminization in men and uterine cancer in women. Breier's study is one of nine projects to receive support from a new NIH program called Discovering New Therapeutic Uses for Existing Molecules.
With recent attention focused on hospital prices, WellPoint and its peers have been enjoying a nice break from their long-running status as Public Enemy No. 1 in the nation’s health care debate. They shouldn’t expect it to last.
Lilly’s drug, if approved, may be a significant competitor to Novo Nordisk A/S’s Victoza, which generated $1.64 billion in 2012.
I appreciated Mickey Maurer’s [June 10] commentary drawing attention to the fact that the overwhelming percentage of violent crimes is committed by repeat offenders.
What if we had a public school system the entire city could be proud of?
Americans gave an estimated $316.2 billion to charity last year, continuing a string of small philanthropic gains. What cause got the bulk of the bounty?
Carmel-based Mainstreet Property Group has built 13 nursing homes in Indiana and Illinois since 2008. Six of the dozen Indiana properties benefited from municipal-backed credit or tax breaks, and a seventh received a reduced-impact fee. Mainstreet also received $345,000 in state economic incentives.
Fundamental to the American experience is the belief that our children have opportunity to reach whatever heights to which they aspire.
Sometimes, the more we learn, the more complicated things get.
Angie’s List turned a profit for the first time in nearly two decades.
Several factors have aligned to spark the long-expected trend.
Carlos Knox runs The Knox Indy Pro Am Summer League, one of only a few nationwide where basketball fans can find top college and professional hoops stars facing off against one another on the hardwood.
A study recently published in Archives of General Psychiatry has linked the growing incidence of autism to early-life exposure to pollution.
The capital cities of Wales and Indiana have much in common and are designing for the future.
Three years ago, the physician practice American Health Network was concerned that the boom in employer on-site clinics would hurt its business. So it launched a program aimed at managing the health of employers’ workers. And it has come up with some impressive results. Carmel-based American Health’s Employer Health Management program sends nurses to all […]
This time of year, as college students return home for the summer, many parents may notice how many politically correct ideas they have acquired on campus. Some of those parents may wonder how they can undo the brainwashing that has become so common in what are supposed to be institutions of higher learning.
Though issues like Medicaid expansion and reducing the income tax were most visible during the recent legislative session, the General Assembly may have also set the stage for substantial future shifts in how Indiana goes about producing a work force prepared for the 21st century economy.
