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Two Purdue University professors and a physician at the Indiana University School of Medicine have created a company to develop nanotechnology devices for medical diagnostic and therapeutic applications. NanoSense Inc., based in West Lafayette, will design tiny chips that can sense biological processes or the dosing of a medicine from inside a patient’s body. The company is led by IU’s Dr. Arthur Ko, a radiation oncologist; Purdue’s Babak Ziaie, a professor of electrical and computer engineering; and Teimour Maleki, a research professor at  Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center.

With a $167,000 grant from the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation, IUPUI will launch the Indiana Schweitzer Fellows Program on Friday. It is the 13th U.S. program site for the Albert Schweitzer Fellowship program, which pays stipends to graduate students who work to address social and health disparities. The Indiana program will be run by Dr. Douglas B. McKeag, former chairman of family medicine at the IU School of Medicine. The grant will be used to implement the 5-2-1-0 Healthy Kids Countdown, a childhood obesity-prevention program, by Schweitzer Fellows throughout the state. The program will select 15 fellows and pay each of them an annual stipend of $3,000. Online applications are due March 1.

Endocyte Inc. priced shares for its initial public offering last week, moving one step closer toward raising more than $80 million to fund its cancer-drug development. The West Lafayette-based drug-development firm intends to sell 6.15 million shares for $13 to $15 apiece. That range would fetch $80 million to $92 million. Those figures include 802,500 shares that will be sold only if demand outstrips the initial allotment of shares of 5.35 million. If Endocyte sells only the smaller amount of shares, it would raise between $70 million and $80 million. In either case, more than $10 million of the funds would cover Endocyte’s costs in staging the IPO. Endocyte first indicated in August it would take itself public by selling shares worth $86.3 million, but not until Jan. 12 did it disclose the price range and number of shares to be sold. The company is developing six cancer drugs, most of which target cancer cells by binding to their receptors for the compound folate. Such receptors are “over-expressed” in cancer cells, compared with healthy cells, so Endocyte’s drugs have the potential to be more potent killing the cancers while attacking fewer healthy cells than existing chemotherapy agents. Endocyte’s leading drug, called EC145, is being tested to treat ovarian cancer that is resistant to platinum-based drugs, as well as to treat non-small-cell lung cancer.

Some health advocacy groups that say they are speaking for patients’ interests before legislatures, regulatory agencies or public forums fail to disclose their funding from Eli Lilly and Co. and other drugmakers, according to The New York Times. Citing a new study from Columbia University, the Times reported that Lilly paid $3.2 million to 161 health advocacy groups in the first half of 2007. But only one in four of the groups acknowledged Lilly’s support anywhere on their public websites, the study said. Only one in 10 disclosed Lilly as the sponsor of a specific grant, and none of them disclosed the exact amount. Lilly’s reports were studied because it was the first company to disclose such payments.

The Indiana 21st Century Research and Technology Fund received $2.6 million from the December sale of Marcadia Biotech to Roche Diagnostics Corp. That represented a 30-percent total return on the state’s $2 million investment in the company. It is the first time the 21st Century Fund has reaped a return on one of the grants it gives to startup companies since the fund rewrote its investment rules five years ago. Before that, it simply made grants that did not have to be repaid if a company hit it big.

Hoosier Village Retirement Center in Zionsville announced plans Monday for a $32 million project that will expand its campus near Interstate 465 and Michigan Road. Hoosier Village plans a 90-unit apartment complex to replace its original residence hall, which was constructed in the 1960s, renovated in the 1990s and expanded in 2001. Hoosier Village currently has 197 independent-living units on its 150-acre campus. Plans also call for a “Memory Support Center,” licensed for residential care of residents with Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related conditions. It will have 36 private rooms and 7,500 square feet of common areas. In addition, the expansion will add a 23,700-square-foot dining center with a 250-person seating capacity, and a community center with exercise rooms, a fitness center, indoor swimming pool and locker rooms. Hoosier Village is a not-for-profit community operated by Baptist Homes of Indiana Inc. The expansion, which should begin this spring and conclude in 2013, will allow the center to add 50 full-time workers. The project is awaiting approval from the Zionsville Planning Department.

Indianapolis-based Arcadia Resources Inc. signed a three-month pilot agreement with the Cleveland Clinic under which the hospital system will use Arcadia’s DailyMed program to help chronically ill patients take their medications after being released from a hospital, thereby reducing readmissions. DailyMed dispenses a monthly cycle of a patient’s prescriptions, over-the-counter medications and vitamins, and organizes them into pre-sorted packets marked with the date and time they should be taken. Also, DailyMed pharmacists call patients, as well as their primary-care doctors and caregivers to encourage medication compliance and avoid drug interactions.

Nearly 300 physicians from Indianapolis-based Community Physicians of Indiana and Evansville-based Deaconess Clinic have joined a research network run by HealthCore Inc., a subsidiary of Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. The Integrated Research Network uses physicians to study drugs, devices, diagnostics and medical methods to see if real-world applications differ from results produced in clinical trials. HealthCore combines its study results with WellPoint’s records on the 33 million Americans it insures. The Deaconess Clinic has about 90 physicians in its multi-specialty physician group. Community Physicians of Indiana employs about 200 general practice physicians for the Community Health Network hospital system. The HealthCore network is currently exploring several opportunities in the areas of heart failure, pain syndromes, antibiotic resistance, Type 2 diabetes and breast cancer.
 

-Performance Bicycle Shop leased 11,500 square feet at Greenwood Shopping Center, U.S. 31 and County Line Road, Greenwood. The tenant was represented by Mark Perlstein of Sitehawk Retail Real Estate.  The landlord, Kimco North Trust, was represented by Larry Davis and Tom English of Sitehawk Retail Real Estate.

-Health Systems International renewed its lease for 7,979 square feet at Castle Creek VI. The tenant was represented by Mark McDermott of CB Richard Ellis. The landlord, Friedman Real Estate Group as receiver, was represented by Matt Langfeldt and Rich Forslund of Summit Realty Group.

-CVS Pharmacy leased 6,787 square feet at 175 N. Illinois St.. The tenant was represented by Ron Foster of Echelon Realty Advisors. The landlord, MT Acquisitions LLC, was represented by Dave Moore, Darrin Boyd and Allison Tiefel of Cassidy Turley.  

-C-2 Supply leased 6,000 square feet of space at Circle City Industrial Complex, 1125 Brookside Ave. The landlord, National Bank of Indianapolis, was represented by Conrad Jacobs and Ralph Balber of Newmark Knight Frank Halakar. The tenant represented itself.

-St. Vincent Hospital Physician Network renewed its lease for 5,702 square feet at 11530 Allisonville Road. The tenant was represented by Bruce Gordon of Duke Realty. The landlord, Bendrew Development LLC, was represented by Matt Langfeldt and Rich Forslund of Summit Realty Group.

-J. Allan Hall & Associates leased 5,250 square feet of office space at Circle Tower, 55 Monument Circle. The landlord, FT Circle Tower LLC, was represented by Bennett Williams and Pete Anderson of Cassidy Turley. The tenant represented self.

-ETI leased 3,963 square feet of office space at 8500 Keystone Crossing. The tenant was represented by Brooke Augustin and Drew Augustin of Alliance Commercial Real Estate. The landlord, PWA Keystone Crossing, LP, was represented by Andrew Martin, Bennett Williams and Michael Semler of Cassidy Turley.

-The Travel Agent Inc. leased 3,439 square feet at Lakeside Corporate Center, 630 West Carmel Drive, Carmel. The tenant was represented by Thomas M. Osborne and Matt Moore of Colliers International. The landlord, ATAPCO Carmel Inc., was represented by John Vandenbark of CB Richard Ellis.

-Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance leased 3,200 square feet at Avon Commons, 10427 E. U.S. Highway 36, Avon. The tenant was represented by Larry Harshman of Harshman Property Services LLC. The landlord, Aviana Co. 3 LLC, was represented by Larry Davis and Tom English of Sitehawk Retail Real Estate.

-Meridian Radiology leased 3,123 square feet at Meridian Professional Building, 3266 N. Meridian St. The tenant was represented by Mike Cole and Steve Wolkoff of Dury Investment Group. The landlord, PBB III LLC, was represented by Brad King and Ron Bell of Colliers International.

-Aqua Indiana leased 2,720 square feet at Castle Creek V. The tenant was represented by Matt Waggoner of Summit Realty Group. The landlord, Friedman Real Estate Group as receiver, was represented by Matt Langfeldt and Rich Forslund of Summit Realty Group.

-Indiana Bond Bank leased 2,445 square feet at 10 W. Market St. The tenant was represented by John Crisp of Cassidy Turley. The landlord, MT Acquisitions LLC, was represented by Dave Moore, Darrin Boyd and Andy Martin of Cassidy Turley.