Articles

Despite sour economy, retail developers press on

Retail developers always have been an audacious breed. They spend millions to build shopping centers, confident that tenants will flock to fill the slots they didn’t prelease. To charge ahead these days takes more than the usual dose of intestinal fortitude. Everyone is nervous — from shoppers to lenders to retailers, many of which have […]

Read More

Lilly taps hedge fund to cut research costs for Alzheimer’s drugs

Eli Lilly and Co.’s unorthodox efforts to develop new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease–if successful–could usher in
a new approach to drug development. The Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical company announced that a New York
hedge fund, TPG-Axon Capital, will invest up to $325 million to help cover the exorbitant development costs
of two experimental compounds to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

Read More

Janitors want Lilly, WellPoint to push for better health benefits

Service Employees International Union Local 3 is backing local janitors as they restart contract negotiations April 16 with
five of the largest janitorial contractors in Indianapolis. SEIU now is taking direct aim at Lilly, health insurer WellPoint
Inc. and even some local hospitals, hoping they will pressure the janitorial contractors to come to terms.

Read More

Lilly expects FDA approval of long-acting version of Zyprexa

Eli Lilly and Co. hopes to extend the life of its best-seller Zyprexa with a potentially lucrative, long-acting form of the antipsychotic drug. But first, the Indianapolis-based drugmaker must win over a panel of medical experts convened by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Feb. 6.

Read More

Taurel passes the baton

A new leader will guide the city’s largest company in 2008, with some of the biggest challenges in its history on the horizon.
Eli Lilly and Co. announced Dec. 18 that CEO Sidney Taurel will step down March 31 and will be replaced by President John
C. Lechleiter, who has been the heir apparent for more than two years.

Read More

Taurel helped Lilly weather Prozac defeat, but he also stumbled

When Eli Lilly and Co. CEO Sidney Taurel announced his retirement Dec. 18, he said he was leaving the company in good shape.
And he can cite plenty of evidence to support him. But when Taurel steps down as CEO March 31, he also will leave a legacy
of a languishing stock price and some costly mistakes that some think could have been avoided. “The facts are the facts; I
guess you can’t ignore it. The stock price has been…

Read More

New Lilly CEO called analytical, ‘incredibly warm’

John C. Lechleiter, whom Eli Lilly and Co.’s board voted to replace Sidney Taurel as CEO, is known for getting things done
and yet also for being good at analysis and relating to people under him. Taurel will step down at the end of March but remain
chairman until the end of 2008.

Read More

Lilly’s plan to outsource more work is good news, bad news

Eli Lilly and Co. will shrink itself with “great intensity” over the next few years, in part by
outsourcing. For other local life sciences firms, that’s a fat pitch for new business. But it’s not clear if non-Lilly firms
can grow fast enough to offset the jobs and wages Indianapolis will lose from Lilly.

Read More

Lilly under gun to replace aging blockbuster Zyprexa

There’s a $2 billion hole in Eli Lilly and Co.’s future. That’s roughly how much pretax profit Lilly derives each year from
its best-seller, Zyprexa, according to calculations by IBJ. And it’s how much black ink will start running off Lilly’s books
once Zyprexa’s U.S. and European patents expire in 2011.

Read More

Taurel draws fire for getting rich while stock struggles

Eli Lilly and Co. stock has returned just 1 percent per year in the nine years since CEO Sidney Taurel took office. Meanwhile,
Taurel has taken home $44 million in pay and been given stock options valued at $114 million more. But most Lilly shareholders
aren’t raising a call for Taurel to hit the trail.

Read More

Lilly still breathing in inhaler pursuit

Pfizer Inc.’s new inhaled insulin product, Exubera, has stumbled out of the gate. That would appear to keep the door open
for Eli Lilly and Co., as well as for other companies racing to develop inhaled insulin. But Pfizer’s troubles might cause
doctors and patients to sour on all inhaled insulin products.

Read More

Lilly decides to self-insure for product liability

Eli Lilly and Co. has picked an insurer it knows extremely well to cover future problems in the high-stakes world of product liability litigation–itself. The Indianapolis drugmaker opted for self-insurance after struggling to find coverage in what it terms a “very restrictive insurance market.”

Read More