Partners Cate McLaughlin and Kyle Falk started the website askcateandkyle.com last July to help recent graduates deal with
the trials and tribulations of life
after college. Their potential audience is huge.
Medical technology companies employed 19,950 Hoosiers in 2007 and supported another 35,000 jobs in supplier companies, according
to an analysis funded by an industry trade group.
The federal government is currently doling out $1.1 billion in stimulus funds to pay for research that compares multiple medical
treatments against one another to determine which is most effective. Drug companies like Eli Lilly and Co. are wary that comparative-effectiveness
research could threaten their sales.
Eli Lilly and Co. and Merck KGaA drug failed to slow tumors in a study designed to expand the medicine’s use to patients whose
disease is in an earlier stage.
A couple of Hoosier entrepreneurs think they can take their career information web site national.
Eli Lilly and Co. is a likely suitor for two cancer drug developers, according to unnamed sources interviewed
by The Financial Times. The Indianapolis-based drugmaker has made cancer its most intense area of new drug investment—as
have many of its peers. The company was outbid last year for Gloucester Pharmaceuticals, which was scooped up by New Jersey-based
Celgene Corp. Now, industry insiders believe Lilly will bid for Gloucester’s competitor in the race to develop the next
lung cancer drug, Colorado-based Allos Therapeutics Inc. Also, Lilly is a likely bidder for Washington-based Seattle Genetics
Inc., which is developing drugs to treat leukemia and Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
With funding still spotty for medical and biotech startups, a huge amount of attention is focusing on Qualified Therapeutic
Discovery Project Credits, which will award $1 billion in tax breaks to small companies developing products that help diagnose,
treat or prevent illnesses. Each business can receive a credit for as much of half its investment into qualified research
and testing of its products, according to a description of the act by Bingham McHale, an Indianapolis law
firm hoping to win clients by helping them apply. The credit will be paid in cash if a company has little to no tax liability.
Only companies that have 250 or fewer employees (of any type) can receive the credits.
Roche Diagnostics won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its test of antibodies that
build up to fight the hepatitis C virus in human fluids. The Elecsys Anti-HCV can be performed on certain models of Roche
Diagnostics’ Cobas and Modular Analytics machines. In April, Roche received FDA clearance for another immunoassay in
its infectious-disease portfolio, Rubella IgM. Roche Diagnostics operates its North American business out of Indianapolis.
Michiana Health Information Network has added Elkhart General Healthcare System to its health information
exchange service. Doctors in Elkhart can now receive electronic copies of medical records and laboratory results from Elkhart
General Hospital quickly and without the privacy issues of e-mail. Once fully implemented, all Elkhart physicians with electronic
health records will have the ability to instantly receive hospital reports, laboratory results and radiology reports directly
into their EHR systems. Michiana Health Information Network, established in 1999, includes more than 3,200 community health
care professionals in northern Indiana and southwest Michigan.
In its latest response to withering criticism of its breast-cancer policies, WellPoint Inc. started Tuesday
to pay for all breast cancer patients to stay two days in a hospital after mastectomy surgery. Some states already require
insurers to cover hospital stays of 48 hours if the patient and her doctor wanted that much time for recovery after mastectomy
surgery. But Indiana requires payment only for a 24-hour stay. Now, WellPoint will make the 48-hour policy standard for its
customers in any state. Indianapolis-based WellPoint has been under fire since a Reuters article in April said the company
uses a computer algorithm to target breast cancer patients for cancellation of their policies. WellPoint has repeatedly called
the article’s claims “inaccurate and grossly misleading.” But the article provided the basis for sharp criticism
of WellPoint from President Obama, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and dozens of members of Congress.
The drugmakers are counting on screening for the so-called K-ras gene to spur use of Erbitux in metastatic colorectal cancer.
In 2008, Eli Lilly and Co. asked drug regulators to change the label on Alimta so Lilly could no longer promote it as a treatment
for all patients suffering from non-small-cell lung cancer, but for only about 70 percent of the patients. Since then, sales
of the drug have accelerated, growing a whopping 48 percent last year.
Companion Diagnostics wants to detect early warning signs of chronic diseases.
Huntington National Bank, a subsidiary of Huntington Bancshares, operates nearly 50 branches and has about 600 employees in
the Indianapolis area.
Facing the tighter restrictions of health reform at home, WellPoint Inc. wants to follow just about every
other U.S. company in seeking growth in China. WellPoint CEO Angela Braly traveled to China last week to seek out a joint
venture partner to offer health insurance to the nation’s upwardly mobile population. "If everything moves on smoothly,
we are targeting 2011 for offering health insurance services through the venture,” Braly told the China Daily
newspaper. Indianapolis-based WellPoint already has a joint venture with three other American health insuers to provide medical
management consulting to Chinese insurance companies. But with China going through its own version of health reform, private
health insurance is poised to become a popular complement to government insurance programs, according to China Daily.
China's health insurance premiums totaled $1.6 billion in the first two months of this year, according to the industry
regulator, up 34 percent from the same period last year. Such growth is enticing to WellPoint, which has been losing customers
and premiums at home.
Whew! Bioanalytical Systems Inc. gets to stay on the NASDAQ Capital Market after a recent surge kept its
share price above $1 for three straight weeks. NASDAQ had threatened in March to delist the West Lafayette-based company if
its stock price didn’t improve. The company’s shares closed at $1 apiece on March 31 and haven’t dipped
below that level since. Bioanlytical provides contract research services and monitoring instruments to drug-development companies
and medical research organizations.
After months of rumors, Roche Diagnostics finally acquired Israel-based Medingo Ltd., which has a semi-disposable
insulin patch pump that Roche hopes to couple with its blood glucose meters. Roche, which is based in Switzerland but runs
its North American business out of Indianapolis, paid $160 million for Medingo and promised various payments if the company’s
product achieves key milestones in its development and sales. The product is set to launch in 2012. Roche holds the largest
market share worldwide in devices for diabetes care, but it has been losing ground to competitors in the U.S. market.
Warsaw-based Biomet Inc. posted a $3.1 million loss in its quarter ended Feb. 28, a big improvement from
its $479 million loss in the same quarter a year earlier. Last year’s results were dampened by a $449 million impairment
charge that Biomet recorded on its dental business. But this year, the loss narrowed as sales surged 9 percent to $670 million
in the quarter, driven by a 17-percent spike in sales of knee implants. Cash flow rose 9 percent to $251 million, up from
$229 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Biomet’s financial results often are a bellwether for other orthopedic
implant companies, which report their quarterly results later this month.
Carmel-based technology firm Gemms Inc. plans to invest $2.1 million to expand its headquarters and software
development operations here, more than doubling its staff in the next five years, according to the Indiana Economic Development
Corp. Gemms, which develops electronic medical record systems for cardiology practices, has 40 employees now and plans to
add 69 more by 2015.
Most of the 148,000-square-foot building just north and east of the 96th Street/Interstate 69 interchange is empty.
Companion Diagnostics Inc. moves from Connecticut to the IU Emerging Technologies Center, hopes to create 30 high-paying jobs
by 2014.
Indiana health-related companies were somewhat absent from the lobbying bonanza that gripped Washington, D.C., in 2009. For
all the heat and light about health reform, major Indiana companies actually spent slightly less to lobby Congress.
Eli Lilly & Co., the maker of the impotence pill Cialis, bought exclusive rights from Australia’s Acrux Ltd. to
an underarm testosterone lotion called Axiron for men with limited sex drive due to low levels of the hormone.
Indianapolis-based Lilly will pay Acrux of West Melbourne, Australia, a $50 million license fee, plus $3 million when manufacturing
assets are transferred, but the deal could be worth millions more.
Out of six professionals IBJ profiled a year ago, three have found jobs, although all have accepted lower pay than
they were getting before. One could not be reached, but she still lists herself as looking for work on LinkedIn.com. Two tried
to start their own businesses, with one giving up and one, Bruce Flanagan, still trying.
Agricultural biotech firm hired a site-selection consultant and considered other cities around the world for its $340 million
expansion.
Local Dow Chemical subsidiary expects to launch five new biotech products by 2012.
Clarian Health and the Indiana University School of Medicine want their planned neurosciences hub to become a destination
for patients suffering
from brain, nerve and mental maladies—and for the government and industry research dollars that can
fuel advances in care.
