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Indiana ranked No. 35—unchanged from last year—on UnitedHealth Foundation’s annual state-by-state ranking of overall public health. While Indiana ranks higher than it did three years ago, the state actually fell five places since UnitedHealth started compiling the ranking in 1990. Since then, obesity in Indiana has surged 130 percent while smoking rates have been stuck for a decade at 26 percent. UnitedHealth’s report says Indiana has good rates of health insurance coverage and does a good job of limiting infectious diseases. But the state suffers from poor air quality and very low public-health funding. The UnitedHealth Foundation is an arm of Minnesota-based health insurer UnitedHealth Group.

Researchers at Purdue University have shown how an experimental drug might restore the function of nerves damaged in spinal-cord injuries and could also treat multiple sclerosis. The experimental compound, 4-aminopyridine-3-methyl hydroxide, has been shown to restore function to damaged axons—slender fibers that extend from nerve cells and transmit electrical impulses in the spinal cord. The researchers’ findings, based on experiments with guinea pig spinal-cord tissue, appeared online Nov. 18 in the Journal of Neurophysiology.

Dr. John Hayes, vice president of Eli Lilly and Co.’s research laboratories and the company’s neuroscience branding leader, will deliver a keynote speech on the possibilities for neuroscience development in Indiana as part of the Neuroscience Summit organization by the Indiana Health Industry Forum. The summit will occur Dec. 4 at University Place Conference Center at IUPUI.

The merged operations of Carmel-based BehaviorCorp and Anderson-based Center for Mental Health will adopt the name Aspire Indiana Behavioral Health System on Jan. 1. The new organization has more than 400 mental health professionals and supporting staff members. Aspire Indiana will serve primarily patients in Madison, Hamilton, Boone and northern Marion counties.

Indianapolis-based Arcadia Resources Inc. has appointed former Indianapolis Mayor Steve Goldsmith to its
board of directors. Goldsmith, who served as mayor from 1992 to 2000, is a professor in the American
Government Program at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He will replace Tres Lund, a
major Arcadia shareholder.

Dr. Christine Davis has joined St. Vincent Physician
Network in Indianapolis. The internist received her medical degree from the University of Louisville
School of Medicine.

Community Health Network promoted Jon Fohrer to CEO of its ambulatory
services.  He has served as network vice president of ambulatory services since November 2002 and led the orthopedic
service line since 2006. Fohrer holds a bachelor’s degree from Ball State University and an MBA from Butler University.

Indianapolis-based Clarian Health has named Mike Yost its executive director of marketing. Yost was
a brand leader at locally based Eli Lilly and Co. for its Zyprexa and Cymbalta drugs.

Clarian also named attorney Tory Castor its vice president of government affairs. Castor worked at Hays
Murray Castor LLP and Bingham McHale.

A panel of medical advisers recommended against wider use of Zimmer Holdings Inc.’s spine stabilization
device, according to Reuters. In a 5-1 vote, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s advisory panel said the data for Zimmer’s
Dynesys Spinal System were unclear and left them with questions about the device’s durability and propensity to break.
Warsaw-based Zimmer already markets the device, which is a series of screws and flexible spacers that help align and support
the spine, for patients who have received fusion surgery. The company is seeking
FDA approval to market Dynesys for stand-alone use. FDA officials will weigh the
panel’s recommendation before making their final approval decision.

New Jersey-based Enzon
Pharmaceuticals Inc. has agreed to sell its specialty pharmaceutical business, along with its
Indianapolis manufacturing facility, to Italy-based Sigma-tau Group. As of January 2008, Enzon’s
facility in Indianapolis employed about 150 workers. It made four medicines, which treated certain kinds of leukemia, meningitis,
fungal infections and the immunodeficiency malady known as “bubble boy disease.” Sigma-tau
paid $300 million for the business, as well as royalties and other payments contingent upon future sales
and development achievements.

Arcadia Resources Inc. sold nearly 16 million
shares of stock in a registered direct offering that raised $11.1 million. Arcadia Chief Financial Officer
Matt Mittendorf said the Indianapolis-based company would use the cash to fund the rollout of its DailyMed pharmacy service
to customers of Indianapolis-based health insurer WellPoint Inc. in Virginia and soon
in California. The company needed more cash, as its reserves had dwindled to $517,000 at the end of the
second quarter, down from $2.4 million a year earlier.

California-based Beckman Coulter
Inc., which makes biomedical testing instrument systems, said it is relocating its precision
plastics injection molding operation to Park 100. The move will add about 100 jobs to the 400 people the company already employs
in Indianapolis. The jobs will pay $22.30 an hour, on average. In 2007, Beckman Coulter closed its 220-employee centrifuge
development and manufacturing facility in Palo Alto, Calif., and moved operations to the Indianapolis area.

For
the 14th straight year, St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital won a Consumer Choice award from the National Research
Corp. The award identifies hospitals that health care consumers have chosen as having the highest quality and image in more
than 300 U.S. markets. No other Indianapolis hospitals won the award this year.

As pharmaceutical
giants re-evaluate their pipelines and seek to sell off products that no longer fit their strategies, it gives opportunities
for pharmaceutical startups. Such divestiture of pharmaceutical products will be discussed Tuesday at the Life Sciences Lunch
at the Barnes & Thornburg LLP law firm in downtown Indianapolis. The lunch will include three speakers:
Reed Tarwater, director of pharmaceutical consulting services at  Carmel-based Anson Group LLC; Ron
Ellis, CEO of Endocyte Inc. in West Lafayette; and Eli Lilly and Co.‘s Pete Robins. The
lunch costs $10 per person and begins at 11:30 a.m.

Former President George H.W. Bush will come to Indianapolis
Nov. 19 to speak at a $250-per-person fund raiser for Alzheimer’s research. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Indiana
Alzheimer Disease Center at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the Indiana Chapter of the
Alzheimer’s Association. Money will also go to the Deane F. Johnson Center Foundation at the University of
California at Los Angeles, a clinical trial center that supports the research of such companies as Indianapolis-based
Eli Lilly and Co. Bush’s speech, which will occur at the Indiana Roof Ballroom, is sponsored
locally by Fishers-based Ambassador Healthcare and the Central Indiana Community
Foundation. Ticket information can be found here.