Third-quarter earnings at Eli Lilly and Co. fell short of analysts’ expectations, and the Indianapolis-based drugmaker reduced its profit forecast by 4 cents per share for the remainder of the year.
Indianapolis-based Mainstreet Property Group said it will spend $60 million to develop senior care communities in Avon, Crawfordsville, Kokomo and the Castlelton area of Indianapolis. The four campuses will include skilled care and assisted living facilities for both short- and long-term patients. All are set to be completed in the third or fourth quarter of 2013, and will collectively employ more than 400 people once they open. The Avon and Crawfordsville communities are part of Mainstreet’s previously announced joint venture with Des Moines-based LCS, a leading provider of senior lifestyle products and services. Mainstreet has added $200 million in new development assets since January 2010.
The Indiana University School of Medicine and the new IU Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health have received a $1.46 million federal grant to create a joint doctor of medicine and master of public health program. The funding will come over five years from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The five-year program will provide medical students with training in environmental health, infectious disease control, disease prevention and health promotion, epidemiological studies and injury control. The first students will enroll in fall of 2013. Also, IU medical school will use some of the federal funding to integrate public health content and experiences into the primary care curriculum that all IU medical students take.
New York-based Aspen Dental Management, which operates 29 dental clinics in Indiana, has been sued for operating those clinics illegally, according to the Associated Press. A federal lawsuit filed in New York claims Aspen Dental and Leonard Green and Partners, the private-equity firm that controls Aspen, are violating laws that require clinics to be owned by dentists who perform procedures onsite. Court papers say Aspen's "so-called 'Practice Owners' are nothing more than de facto employees and/or independent contractors" of the company, which controls its 358 clinics' marketing, hiring, training and bookkeeping. Aspen says it provides management services and doesn't control clinical care. A spokeswoman says the accusations in the filing are "entirely without merit." A message left with Los Angeles-based LGP wasn't initially returned. Aspen operates 29 dental offices in Indiana, including 10 in the Indianapolis area, according to its website.
Researchers are set to test drugs by Eli Lilly and other companies that may prevent Alzheimer’s disease after efforts to find a cure have been unsuccessful.
The proximal causes of poverty—dropping out of school (one in five kids) and single parenthood (two in five kids)—are best described as failures of families.
Eli Lilly and Co. shares rose nearly 5 percent Monday morning after the company said a study found that its experimental stomach cancer drug helped patients with advanced disease live longer, according to Bloomberg News. The drug, ramucirumab was tested in patients with gastric cancer that had spread to other organs. The most common side effect for the medicine was high blood pressure, diarrhea and headache, Lilly said in a prepared statement. Lilly did not disclose how much logner ramucirumab helped patients live, but said it would release those details at a future medical meeting. If approved, the drug might generate $600 million in annual sales, said Mark Schoenebaum, a New York-based analyst with ISI Group. Lilly shares rose 4.8 percent, to $52.86 each, late in the morning and were up 32 percent in the 12 months through Sunday. Ramucirumab is among the products obtained by Lilly from its $6.5 billion acquisition of ImClone Systems Inc. in 2008. Lilly has five other late-stage studies of ramucirumab ongoing in four tumor types, including breast and lung cancer. If approved for all indications in testing, the drug could have $1.6 billion in sales by 2020, according to a prediction by Leerink Swann analyst Seamus Fernandez.
Ron Thieme, who took over as president and CEO of AIT Laboratories during a management shakeup earlier this year, is leaving, the Indianapolis-based firm announced Monday morning. Chairman and company founder Michael Evans will return to the positions of president and CEO. Evans stepped down from those positions in March to make way for Thieme, who had been vice president and chief information officer of AIT since 2007. AIT said Monday in a prepared statement that Thieme was “leaving the company to pursue other challenges” and “would continue to work with AIT during a transition period.” AIT, a forensics and clinical testing company, has experienced a number of management moves this year amid challenging economic conditions in its industry. In January, Evans said AIT was looking to "restructure our business" and had eliminated an unspecified number of jobs. “AIT has seen reimbursement from government and private payers reduced throughout 2011, which has had a negative financial impact on the company,” he said at the time.
Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. will reorganize into four business units as a way to smooth the integration of Amerigroup Corp., the insurer WellPoint agreed to buy in July for $4.9 billion, according to a company memo obtained by Bloomberg News. Unlike WellPoint’s old structure, Medicare and Medicaid plans will be handled in separate divisions. In addition, there will be a commercial division overseeing sales of health insurance to employers and individuals, and a specialty division that sells dental, vision and disability coverage. Jim Carlson, CEO of Virginia-based Amerigroup, will run the Medicare division. Leeba Lessin, who was the top medical officer at California-based CareMore Group when WellPoint acquired it last year, will run the Medicare unit. Ken Goulet will continue to oversee WellPoint’s commercial business. And WellPoint veteran Lori Beer will oversee the specialty businesses. Chief Financial Officer Wayne DeVeydt will remain in his job. The changes were instituted by John Cannon, who has been serving as WellPoint’s interim CEO since the forced resignation of Angela Braly on Aug. 28. Cannon will serve in that role until a permanent replacement is found.
Three health care organizations broke ground on new facilities last week. The Community Health Network hospital system will construct a $24 million cancer center on the campus of its Community South Hospital. The 65,000-square-foot facility is expected to open next fall. Wishard Health Services, which is in the process of changing its name to Eskenazi Health, is building a $25 million primary care center in a former Circuit City store near Lafayette Square Mall. The 70,000-square-foot center will open next fall to provide care, senior care, health and wellness programs, physical therapy, radiology and other diagnostic testing. In addition, HealthNet Inc. is spending $312,000 to convert a former Blockbuster video store on West 10th Street into a primary care health center. The center will also offer pediatric, OB/GYN, podiatry, optometry, social work and behavioral health services, as well as access to discounted prescriptions. The health center, which will open in December, is expected to serve 3,000 patients.
Biomet Inc. saw its operating income fall and its sales growth decelerate in the three months ended Aug. 31. The Warsaw-based maker of orthopedic implants is often a bellwether for the rest of the industry. Biomet’s overall sales rose 6 percent in the quarter, to $707.4 million, compared with the same three months a year ago. But excluding Biomet’s recent acquisition of a trauma implant maker, its sales would have grown just 1 percent, to $668.6 million, over the same quarter last year. During the three months ended May 31, Biomet’s overall sales grew 3 percent. “We did experience some deceleration in growth for our hip and knee business, but until others report their results, we won't know whether market growth has slowed or our growth has come back to market,” Biomet CEO Jeffrey Binder said in a prepared statement. Operating income at Biomet totaled $69 million during the most recent quarter, down from nearly $73 million during the same quarter last year. Excluding special costs related to Biomet’s 2007 buyout by private equity firms and its acquisition of the trauma company, Biomet would have generated operating income of $191.7 million, a 5-percent increase over the same quarter last year.
A $2.8 billion coal-to-natural-gas plant in Rockport has been in the works for several years, but the economics of the project seem dodgier by the day.
Mike’s goal No. 6 is to develop a plan to improve the health, safety and well-being of Hoosier families, especially children.
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WALL: One of the big changes coming out of the 2010 health reform law is a push for health care providers to provide care more based on value, a little less based on volume of services. One concept toward that goal is this accountable care organization concept. It’s similar in many ways to health maintenance […]
Indianapolis Business Journal convened a panel of experts at its Health Care & Benefits Power Breakfast on Sept. 28 to talk about industry issues including Medicaid, on-site health clinics and narrow networks. Panelists included Robert J. Brody, president and CEO of Franciscan St. Francis Health; Michael N. Heaton, partner, Katz Sapper & Miller; Dr. Gregory N. Larkin, commissioner, Indiana State Department of Health; Vicki F. Perry, president, CEO, Advantage Health Solutions Inc.; Dr. Ram Yeleti, president, Community Physician Network. The following is the unedited transcript of the discussion.
With health insurance premiums continuing to outstrip inflation, some health insurers and hospital systems are considering bringing back an old strategy: limiting patient access to a “narrow” network of doctors and hospitals.
Indianapolis Public Schools and the community centers and ministries of the near-east side came together to apply for a Promise Neighborhood grant—committing to organize supports for students and families around schools in order to significantly improve the educational and developmental outcomes of all children.
Most would probably agree that a stereotypical picture of homelessness exists. Many think of people dealing with alcohol or drug-dependency issues, dangerous deadbeats and the mentally ill. These stereotypes lead to misconceptions, whereby people don’t feel responsibility toward helping address and end this sad and unnecessary issue.
The trick that is easy to play on the average person is to imply that Washington is like your experience in most life situations in a business, church or even city or state government, which tends to be solution-oriented as opposed to establishing the ideological framework and laws for all private business and increasingly all governmental standards.
Perry Griffith, the scion of the Griffith family’s Denison Parking empire, is handing the CEO reins to the executive who helped him expand the Indianapolis company to 10 other states in as many years.
Code dating to 1969 to be updated to encourage density, sustainability and mass transit.
Dr. Wafic ElMasri, a gynecologic oncologist, has been hired by Community Physician Network, a division of Indianapolis-based hospital system Community Health Network. ElMasri, a native of Beirut, Lebanon, did his medical training at the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine. He previously held jobs as a professor in the OB/GYN department at Texas Tech University and as a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute. His office is in Castleton.
Dr. Peter Schilt, an ear, nose and throat specialist, also was hired by Community Physician Network. Schilt, a native of Carmel, did his medical training at the Indiana University School of Medicine. His office is in Noblesville.
Fort Wayne-based NoMoreClipboard hired Tom Penno as vice president of channel management, overseeing relationships with the company’s sales and distribution partners. NoMoreClipboard offers Web-based personal health record systems to patients and employers. Penno was most recently chief operating officer at the Indianapolis-based Indiana Health Information Exchange.
Dr. Timothy Shoemaker, an endocrinologist, has established a practice with Franciscan Physician Network Diabetes & Endocrinology Specialists in Indianapolis, which is part of the Franciscan St. Francis Health hospital system. Shoemaker earned his medical degree at the Indiana University School of Medicine.
Christine Liedtke, a psychologist, has joined the Carmel office of Aspire Indiana, which provides therapy, recovery and employment services to people with mental health disorders or addictions. She specializes in treating children and families. Liedtke graduated in 2009 from the American School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University in Washington, D.C.
