Cook Group acquires local biotech company
Bloomington-based medical device maker Cook Group has acquired General BioTechnology LLC, an Indianapolis biotech company with about 20 employees, Cook Group announced Monday.
Health Care & Insurance
Articles
New Lilly drug has small sales potential
Eli Lilly and Co.’s newest drug is a boon for Alzheimer’s research but is likely to bring the Indianapolis drugmaker less than $100 million in annual sales—at least initially, according to one of the few analysts to make a forecast.
St. Vincent nears another ‘merger’
The Indianapolis-based hospital system is working with Evansville-based St. Mary's Health System to mesh some of their corporate operations.
Lilly wins FDA approval for Alzheimer’s imaging agent
The agent, called Amyvid, is not expected to produce high-dollar sales for Lilly, but it could help to identify patients with Alzheimer’s—and those without it—earlier, perhaps improving treatment and focusing research efforts.
Komen grant recipients cope with controversy they didn’t create
Local health care providers won’t find an easy replacement for the grant money supplied by Susan G. Komen for the Cure. That money could be in jeopardy, as grass-roots Komen supporters appear to be sitting out of this year’s Race for the Cure in response to a national controversy over grants to Planned Parenthood.
Bankers Life paying $10M fine following securities probe
CNO Financial Group Inc. has agreed to pay $9.9 million to settle allegations by regulators in four states that its Bankers Life subsidiary acted as an investment adviser and broker-dealer without proper state licensing.
Biomet offers to acquire DePuy trauma biz for $280M
Warsaw-based Biomet, which designs and manufactures orthopedic products for surgical and non-surgical uses, said the deal would greatly expand its sports, extremities and trauma business.
Compensation dips slightly for WellPoint brass
Angela Braly, CEO of the Indianapolis-based health insurance company, received total compensation of nearly $13.3 million, down 1.5 percent from the $13.5 million she made the previous year.
FirstPerson buys FlashPoint HR unit
Indianapolis-based benefits brokerage FirstPerson acquired the small-employer human resource division of Indianapolis-based consulting firm FlashPoint last week in a bid to provide a wider array of services to small businesses.
Supreme skepticism boosts WellPoint stock
Wall Street's favorable reaction came not only because harsh questioning by the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative justices put in doubt the health reform law’s mandate that all Americans buy health insurance, but also because the justices raised the possibility that they would strike down requirements that insurers accept all customers, regardless of health.
Express Scripts-Medco deal approved by U.S. regulators
Express Scripts Inc.’s $29.1 billion bid for rival drug benefit manager Medco Health Solutions Inc. won unconditional approval from U.S. antitrust regulators, clearing the way to create the biggest manager of prescription-drug benefits for corporate and government clients.
Past support of health care mandate haunts Lugar
Like many Senate Republicans who have spent a few decades in Washington, U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar was for the individual health care mandate before he was against it. Two decades later, the policy is a near heretical stance among the party’s conservative base, and it threatens to derail Lugar’s reelection bid.
S&P completes biggest first-quarter rally since 1998
More than $3.6 trillion has been restored to U.S. equity values since October amid better-than-estimated earnings and economic data. Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. surged 11 percent this week, as the Supreme Court debated the health care law.
Carmel man charged with defrauding Medicaid of $1M
Businessman Donald Hamilton faces one count of health care fraud, five counts of false statements in a health care matter and two counts of money laundering. He faces a maximum sentence of 55 years if convicted on all counts.
Indy lab company secures $30M seed investment
Indianapolis-based Strand Diagnostics LLC will receive up to $30 million in investment capital over the next three years from Los Angeles-based NantWorks LLC, a seed-stage investment firm, the companies announced this week.
Device maker Biomet paying $22.7M to settle bribery case
Indiana-based Biomet Inc. has agreed to pay $22.7 million to settle U.S. criminal and civil allegations that it bribed government-employed doctors in Argentina, Brazil and China for eight years to win business with hospitals.
Community to expand Heart Hospital
Community Health Network will break ground this month on a $6.9 million, 4,600-square-foot expansion of its Indiana Heart Hospital, adding two operating rooms.
Supreme Court can’t stop ‘reform’
Leaping costs, aging populace and cash-strapped consumers will drive reform in health care industries even if court strikes down law.
Q&A
Tino Pereira, CEO of Canada-based Iotron Industries, discussed the electron-beam facility his company opened March 15 in Columbia City, which lies halfway between Fort Wayne and Warsaw in northern Indiana. Iotron already helps some of the orthopedic implant makers in Warsaw alter the strength, flexibility or surface conditions of the materials in the joint replacements they make. That makes its services important in research and development for new products.
Lilly receives Europe’s OK for new Byetta use
European regulators have approved an expanded use for the diabetes treatment Byetta, developed by Eli Lilly and Co. and Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. The FDA approved the same expanded use last fall.