The Indianapolis area’s largest employers have spent millions of dollars studying and promoting regional mass transit, but if the idea is going to get past the Legislature, they might have to put money into the $1.3 billion system as well.
Investors are gaining confidence in the ability of major drugmakers, including Eli Lilly and Co., to improve their pipelines of new products. The big pharma firms begin to report first-quarter earnings this week.
The Indianapolis pharmaceutical company left its full-year profit forecast unchanged despite a spike in first-quarter earnings. Revenue fell short of analyst expectations.
Eli Lilly and Co. is seeking to revoke a patent held by a Johnson & Johnson unit, arguing at a London court it might delay availability of a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.
Mayor Greg Ballard’s fascination with the cultures of other countries is one of his endearing qualities.
New WellPoint Inc. CEO Joe Swedish threw cold water April 24 on widespread speculation that he will lead the company through a new wave of hospital and doctor acquisitions. Swedish, 61, had spent his entire career managing hospitals, including the past eight years as CEO of Michigan-based Trinity Health Corp., a Catholic hospital system. But in spite of many questions about the prospect, he’s not looking to get back in that business. “To be clear, I do not currently see vertical integration as a likely path for WellPoint,” Swedish said during an investor conference call Wednesday morning. “The models are so divergent that it just does not seem to be the best use of capital.” Analysts, investors, local health care providers and even WellPoint’s own employees have been asking about the possibility of WellPoint's acquiring hospitals and doctors since Swedish was named in mid-February to replace former WellPoint CEO Angela Braly. Instead, Swedish emphasized that WellPoint is moving to work more closely with health care providers than the confrontational stand that it and most health insurers have taken in the past. But he spoke about new kinds of contracts, rather than acquisitions.
A pharmacy that makes specialty medications is recalling nearly 100 compounded drugs after federal regulators found potential safety problems during an inspection. Nora Apothecary Alternative Therapies of Indianapolis says it is recalling all sterile drugs that have not reached their expiration date. The drugs were made on or before April 19. The company said it initiated the recall after the Food and Drug Administration found quality control problems that threaten the sterility of its products. If compounded drugs are not sterile, they can cause infections, though the company said it has not received any reports of illness.
Record sales of seeds and new crop protection products helped boost Dow AgroSciences LLC revenue 14 percent in the first quarter, leading to record profit. The Indianapolis-based maker of agricultural products, a unit of Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co., brought in $2.1 billion in revenue compared with $1.7 billion a year earlier. Profit in the latest quarter totaled $484 million before accounting for interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. That was a 7-percent jump from $451 million a year earlier, Dow Chemical reported April 25. Sales of crop protection products swelled 7 percent, driven by gains in North America and Latin America. Sales of seeds, genetic traits and oils rocketed 37 percent, due in part to strong demand for the firm’s genetically modified SmartStax products.
Eli Lilly and Co. said the Food and Drug Administration will perform a priority evaluation of its experimental stomach cancer drug ramucirumab under a program designed for drugs that treat serious or life-threatening diseases for which there are few other therapies. According to the Associated Press, this fast-track status gives companies extra meetings and correspondence with regulators throughout the review process, and it allows the drugmaker to submit data as it compiles it. Lilly is seeking approval for ramucirumab as a second treatment in patients with gastric and gastroesophageal junction cancers that have spread. In the first quarter, Lilly's earnings jumped 53 percent largely due to a $495 million payment for the transfer to former drug development partner Amylin Pharmaceuticals of commercial rights outside the United States for the diabetes treatment exenatide. Lilly earned $1.55 billion, or $1.42 per share, in the three months that ended March 31. Not counting the exenatide payment, Lilly reported adjusted earnings of $1.14 per share. Analysts expected, on average, earnings of $1.05 per share.
WellPoint Inc. reported better-than-expected financial results for the quarter ended March 31. The Indianapolis-based health insurer earned $885.2 million in the first three months of the year, or $2.89 per share. Profit was 3.4 percent higher than in the same quarter a year ago. Excluding investment losses and other extraordinary charges, the company would have earned $2.94 per share, a nearly 26-percent increase over the same quarter last year. On that basis, analysts were expecting profit of $2.38 per share, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. The higher earnings prompted WellPoint to raise its full-year profit forecast to $7.75 per share, up from its previous prediction of $7.60 per share.
Infuse Accelerator hopes to make early-stage investments in 12 to 15 companies a year.
The General Assembly’s work left some groups happy, some disappointed.
Major drugmakers, including Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co., are closely watching Pfizer Inc.’s plan to sell Viagra directly to consumers. The bold move blows up the drug industry’s distribution model.
Lilly will eliminate 1,624 positions from its U.S. sales force in July, according to a notice the company made to state officials. But some of those workers may be rehired by the firm.
The effort to launch the Indiana Biosciences Research Institute got $25 million from the Legislature, but the life sciences institutions backing the effort have set their funding sights much higher.
John Lechleiter has been suffering from a dilated aorta, Eli Lilly and Co. said Monday. Current CFO Derica Rice will take his place until later this summer.
Five of the six Hoosier firms that appear in the 2013 rankings slipped from their positions in last year’s list of the largest U.S. companies.
Credit unions last year posted record earnings, thanks largely to lower loan-loss reserves, as well as to growing memberships, growing debit cards, selling off mortgages and stealing business loans away from banks, their arch rivals.
The drug, enzastaurin, was in the most advanced stage of testing and had been expected to generate $260 million in annual sales by 2018.
R. Graham Cooks, a professor of chemistry at Purdue University, has been awarded the biennial Dreyfus Prize for advancements in mass spectrometry. Cooks will receive $250,000 and a medal. Cooks created a new way to analyze chemicals in their natural environment, without having to put them in a vacuum tube. The technique allowed for chemical analysis of fingerprints at crime scenes, and was incorporated into the storyline of an episode of the TV show "CSI: Miami" in 2008.
Julie Lappas has joined Hall Render Killian Heath & Lyman’s Indianapolis office, helping health care providers comply with federal and state anti-kickback, privacy and licensure laws. Lappas previously worked as a sales representative at Eli Lilly and Co., before earning her law degree at The George Washington University Law School. She also holds a bachelor’s from Indiana University.
In a case that could have affected Dow AgroSciences LLC and companies developing biotech drugs, the U.S. Supreme Court sustained St. Louis-based Monsanto Co.'s claim that an Indiana farmer violated the company's patents on soybean seeds that are resistant to its weed killer. The justices, in a unanimous vote Monday, rejected farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman’s argument that cheap soybeans he bought from a grain elevator are not covered by the Monsanto patents, even though most of them also were genetically modified to resist the company's Roundup herbicide. Justice Elena Kagan said a farmer who buys patented seeds must have the patent holder's permission. Monsanto has a policy to protect its investment in seed development that prohibits farmers from saving or reusing the seeds once the crop is grown. Farmers must buy new seeds every year. The case had been closely watched by researchers and businesses holding patents on DNA molecules, nanotechnologies and other self-replicating technologies. But Kagan said the court's holding only "addresses the situation before us."
Warner Transitional Services LLC, a 10-month-old company that provides services to adults with developmental disabilities, plans to cease operations this summer, putting 112 employees out of work. The Indianapolis-based firm plans to terminate employment for 102 of its employees on June 7. The other 10 will remain with the company for less than another month to help wind down operations. Warner relies on funds from the Indiana Family and Social Administration, but FSSA recently decided to end that funding after numerous complaints against the company went unresolved. More than half of the employees affected are direct care professionals, a title usually held by nursing assistants or personal care aides. Warner is a subsidiary of Oconomowoc, Wis.-based Oconomowoc Residential Programs Inc., which operates several therapeutic, residential and in-home services businesses in the Midwest.
John Lechleiter temporarily relinquished the reins of Eli Lilly and Co. on Monday while he undergoes and recovers from cardiovascular surgery. Derica Rice, Lilly’s chief financial officer, will become acting CEO in Lechleiter’s absence. And Ellen Marram, lead independent director on Lilly’s board of directors, will be acting chairman. Lechleiter, 59, has been suffering from a dilated aorta, which is a swelling that can cause a rupture and bleeding in the main artery that carries blood from the heart. The company said the problem was discovered during unrelated testing and has not produced visible symptoms. Lechleiter will undergo a procedure in Indianapolis in which a portion of his aorta will be removed and replaced with a graft, said Lilly spokesman Ed Sagebiel. He will be recuperating for months, but is expected to return to the company “later this summer,” depending on the pace of his recovery. Rice, 48, has been Lilly’s CFO since 2006 and executive vice president of global services since 2010. He is the highest-ranking African-American executive at Lilly.
Former WellPoint Inc. CEO Angela Braly has been named by Gov. Mike Pence to serve as a board member of the Indiana Economic Development Corp. The appointment is the first high-profile post that Braly, 51, has accepted since she was ousted from the top spot at the Indianapolis-based health insurer in August. Braly’s tenure leading WellPoint was rocky, in part because WellPoint was painted by President Obama’s administration as the poster child of health insurance abuses during the lengthy debate of the president’s health reform law. Financial and operational missteps ultimately led investors to demand Braly’s ouster last summer. In February, WellPoint hired Joe Swedish, a longtime hospital executive, to replace Braly. WellPoint is Indiana's largest public company, ranking No. 47 on the new Fortune 500 list.
Eli Lilly and Co. CEO John Lechleiter underwent a scheduled surgery Monday for a heart defect, and the repair to the aorta is functioning as intended, the Indianapolis-based drugmaker said.
The five-year program is designed to transform the Indianapolis Museum of Art into a more visitor-centered institution. The first year will include enhancements to the upcoming Matisse show.
