The nightmare that culminated with the Plainfield-based company’s recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing began in the depths of the financial crisis, when the company’s lender yanked its more-than-$10-million line of credit.
Joyce Irwin has been named CEO of Community Health Network Foundation, the charitable arm of the Indianapolis-based Community Health Network hospital system. On Oct. 22, Irwin will replace Dr. Jeffrey Boester, who has served as interim CEO since June, following the departure of Michele Dole. Irwin was most recently national director of state government affairs, regulatory and public policy at Roche Diagnostics Corp. in Indianapolis. Before Roche, Irwin worked as a consultant on corporate public policy for Eli Lilly and Co. She holds bachelor's and master's degrees in education from Indiana University.
AIT Laboratories has named Paula Conroy its chief financial officer. Conroy most recently operated her own consulting business specializing in CFO services for privately held companies. Conroy previously worked at the U.S. Securites & Exchange Commission and Ernst & Young LLP. She holds both a bachelor’s in management and an MBA from Purdue University and is a certified public accountant.
Dr. Sarah Ali, an oncologist and hematologist, has joined Franciscan Physician Network Oncology & Hematology Specialists on the south side. Ali earned her medical degree at St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada, West Indies, and completed a hematology-oncology fellowship at Michigan State University.
Sean Fallon has been named chief technology officer for CNO Financial Group Inc. He most recently worked at Lincoln Financial Group, where he served as vice president for application development in its group protection division. Fallon holds a bachelor’s degree in business and finance from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a master’s in finance from the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.
The Fishers-based Behavior Analysis Center for Autism hired psychologist Genae Hall as its new research director and consultant. She currently serves as the co-director of Behavior Analysis and Intervention Services. A native of California, Hall holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California at Santa Barbara, a master’s in psychology from Western Michigan University, and a doctorate in psychology from West Virginia University.
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.
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 […]
More than 100 local groups are joining forces to rehabilitate neglected rivers and streams in Marion County in the hope of sparking redevelopment.
Indianapolis city-county councilors hope expanding the downtown TIF district will mean more jobs for their constituents. Developers, city contractors and other firms benefiting from the expanded economic-development zone must try to ensure that 40 percent of their work force comes from within the expanded TIF area.
The $91 million water and sewer deal is expected to improve water distribution between northeast and northwest suburbs.
R. David and Suzanne Hoover, both 1967 graduates of DePauw University, will contribute $9 million to need-based scholarships, with the rest providing the lead gift for Hoover Hall.
A Colorado couple who both graduated from DePauw University have donated $25 million to the private liberal arts college to build a new dining hall and to endow need-based scholarships.
Eli Lilly and Co. is betting on a “broad” range of diabetes products including pills, insulins and a once-a-week treatment to take on bigger competitors, said Enrique Conterno, president of Lilly Diabetes.
Eli Lilly and Co.’s Alzheimer’s drug slowed cognitive decline 34 percent in patients with mild forms of the disease, according to an analysis of Lilly’s clinical trial data released Monday. Lilly’s share price jumped more than 5 percent on the news.
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Eli Lilly & Co.’s solanezumab and Roche Holding AG’s gantenerumab were selected for a long-term Alzheimer’s trial run by Washington University at St. Louis scientists seeking to block the disease’s symptoms.
More than 8,000 Eli Lilly and Co. employees are out of the office Thursday, working on volunteer projects aimed at cleaning up and protecting Indianapolis waterways. Lilly marshaled the power of its annual Global Day of Service to partner with Keep Indianapolis Beautiful on the grass-roots Reconnecting to Our Waterways initiative. Volunteers split into groups to work on areas around six of the city’s waterways: Pogue's Run, White River, Central Canal, Pleasant Run, Eagle Creek and Fall Creek. Lane closures along Fall Creek Parkway from Delaware Street to 38th Street snarled southbound rush-hour traffic.
It’s invigorating to see the big potential of grass-roots economic development efforts. Take, for example, the Reconnecting to Our Waterways initiative, a mammoth plan to use six waterways in the city to attract investment and improve the neighborhoods that surround them.
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.
Eli Lilly and Co. has apparently made major medical history by being the first to develop a drug that alters the course of Alzheimer’s disease. But whether Lilly can be the first to make major money from a disease-altering Alzheimer’s drug is still in doubt.
Eli Lilly and Co. shares rose nearly 5 percent Monday morning after it said a study found that its experimental stomach-cancer drug helped patients with advanced disease live longer.
Marion County is granting Simon Property Group Inc. a $2.4 million refund, after a tax review board cut the value of Lafayette Square Mall and Washington Square Mall roughly in half.
