BioCrossroads is exploring an unusual new strategy to boost the development of Indiana’s life sciences industry: Team up with
San Diego. Advocates say it’s a novel approach with enormous potential for Indiana.
In this era of hyper-scrutiny of corporate ethics, even messy personal lives can fell the career of a “well-loved and well-respected”
executive. Such appears to be the case with David C. Colby, whom WellPoint Inc. forced to resign as its vice chairman and
chief financial officer on May 30 for violating the company’s code of conduct in a “non-business” way.
Seven Indiana public companies not only own corporate jets, but also let their executives use them for personal trips. Cummins
Inc., Hillenbrand Industries Inc., Zimmer Holdings Inc., Eli Lilly and Co., NiSource Inc., WellPoint Inc. and 1st Source Corp.
all allow some personal use of company jets.
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.
In the last three years, Indianapolis hospitals have seen a substantial run-up in the amount of charity care they give to patients who can’t pay. The cost of care is rising, more people are uninsured, and government officials are scrutinizing not-for-profit hospitals to make sure they give enough charity care to merit their tax-exempt status.
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.
A bill moving through the Indiana General Assembly could remove one of the major weapons Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield
has used to preserve its market dominion. Senate Bill 114 would forbid health care providers from granting Anthem–or any
other health insurer–so-called “most favored nation” clauses.
When Dr. Jack Farr II saw his grandfather’s knees become bowed out, then saw his father get a knee replacement, he knew he
was next. So he spent his career trying to develop new techniques to replace–and now even regrow–the cartilage around knees.
His labors are part of an international effort to develop alternatives to joint replacements.
Robert J. Brody, president and CEO of St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers, announced March 8 that St. Francis would shutter
its inpatient hospital in Beech Grove and expand its south-side hospital by 2010. In an interview with IBJ, Brody laid out
the ills that beset hospitals across the country.
There are no longer any for-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance plans for WellPoint Inc. to acquire as a means of growth.
State governments have effectively stopped those plans from converting to for-profits. That means new CEO Angela F. Braly
can’t keep WellPoint growing by gobbling up competitors.
At least five companies are scouting locations for dozens of new health clubs in a blitz that could help the city shed its
reputation for high rates of obesity. The fitness club business is booming nationwide, and several chains are betting Hoosiers
are among those looking for more convenient opportunities to get in shape.
Angie’s List is preparing to bring its patented dose of consumer empowerment to your local doctor’s office. The Web-based
rating service–which started 2007 by expanding into 30 more cities–hopes to launch a pilot program in Indianapolis that
rates doctors, insurers and others in the health care business.
State officials are advancing plans to privatize a state-run hospital for the mentally ill and now are looking for a not-for-profit
to build and manage a new facility in Indianapolis.
Eli Lilly and Co.’s loss in May of a patent-infringement lawsuit brought by Ariad Pharmaceuticals
Inc. went down as the 6th-largest such jury award last year, a Bloomberg analysis shows.
A court-appointed trustee in charge of Winona Memorial Hospital’s bankruptcy says he believes former owners fleeced it for
more than $4 million. But he has little to show from his two-year quest to recover money for creditors and now is winding
down the case.
Eli Lilly and Co. is facing another round of litigation over its star seller, Zyprexa, as insurers and third-party payers
ask to be reimbursed for covering the antipsychotic drug.
Clarian Health Partners will start posting prices for care on its Web site early next year, a move aimed at advancing the national movement toward greater transparency in health care costs.
Technology advocate Techpoint is considering merging into the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership–a move that would leave CICP CEO Mark Miles atop all three of Indiana’s major business-development initiatives.
Four former top scientists at Eli Lilly and Co. have formed a Carmel-based company to develop diabetes therapies–a venture observers say has the potential to become the kind of blockbuster success BioCrossroads was built to stimulate.
Labs are nearing capacity at Strand Analytical Laboratories, which provides forensic and paternity DNA testing. In the second year of Scott Newman’s business, the former prosecutor predicts 2007 revenue will reach $4 million.
