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EDITORIAL: Tough love for struggling park: State’s high standards deserve praise

Tough love for struggling park State’s high standards deserve praise It would be easy for the state’s certified technology park initiative to degenerate into a handout program with little or no accountability. If communities in all corners of the state get a park, along with the accompanying tax benefits and grants, everyone’s happy, right? Perhaps. But for the Indiana Economic Development Corp. to deploy resources in the most potent manner, it must focus on the parks with the potential to…

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City’s life sciences corridor to get $4M in improvements

City planners have long envisioned a high-tech corridor of life sciences research buildings and businesses extending northwest
of downtown to 16th Street. And the city is now spending $4 million on infrastructure and streetscape improvements toward
that end, as well as signage identifying the area as a life sciences hub.

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Arcadia Resources HQ lured to city by central location:

Arcadia Resources Inc. CEO Marvin Richardson, an Anderson native and Purdue University pharmacy graduate, said Indianapolis was chosen for the company’s new headquarters because the city’s central location will create an advantage when it launches a new drug-packaging system. The system, called DailyMed, will help patients manage their prescription pills. The company plans to open a distribution center for DailyMed in the near future that eventually could employ 300 or more. Arcadia will move from the Detroit suburb of Southfield….

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Marketing firm broadens offerings, narrows focus: Hetrick projects 20-percent growth on fewer clients

In the last year, Hetrick Communications has hired 10 employees, added a major new client, and changed its focus. What was once primarily a public relations firm is now also an advertising agency targeting health care and life sciences. On the heels of the changes, Hetrick actually wants fewer clients. “We want fewer, bigger clients,” said Amy Ahlersmeyer, the firm’s president and chief operating officer. “We want our growth to come absolutely in the health care and life sciences sector.”…

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FlowCo on verge: BioCrossroads grant boosts promising biotech firm

Drug-coated stents, which are used to open clogged arteries, can be life savers-if they’re implanted correctly. The $6 billion global stent market has come under scrutiny lately from doctors and researchers concerned that poor technique by cardiologists may contribute to rare but dangerous blood clots that can form after a stent is inserted. Stents that aren’t placed properly over the affected area may enable clots to form. But a device developed by an IUPUI researcher could prevent mishaps by helping…

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Capital key topic at forum: Fourth life sciences event grows with local industry

The pulse of Indiana’s fledgling life sciences sector will be taken later this month at an annual conference featuring some of the industry’s strongest advocates. Experts will weigh in on several topics ranging from the discovery of technology to accessing capital, which is a growing concern for the earliest-stage companies that are riskier investments. In its fourth year, the Indiana Life Sciences Forum will take place Oct. 22-23 at the Westin Indianapolis and will be hosted by Indiana business-development initiative…

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STARTUP GAZELLE WEB & CONSULTING LLC: Entrepreneur offers to help entrepreneurs

STARTUP GAZELLE WEB & CONSULTING LLC Entrepreneur offers to help entrepreneurs Type of business: Consults with startup and growing companies Location: 885 Waveland Lane, Greenwood Phone: 450-7746 E-mail: lott.brandon@gmail.comWeb site: www.gazellewebandconsulting.comFounded: December 2006 Owner: Brandon Lott Owner’s background: Lott, 33, grew up in the south side of Indianapolis and graduated from Indiana University in 1998 with a health care degree. He went to New York in 2005 to work as an operations manager for retailer Alan Flusser Custom Shop, but…

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Strides taken in life sciences, experts say: Industry panel: Thanks to ongoing efforts, Indiana has experienced serious progress as biomedical hotbed during last 5 years

Five leaders of Indiana’s life sciences industry offered their perspectives at the Indiana Convention Center June 26 as part of the Indianapolis Business Journal’s Power Breakfast Series. The panelists: Mike Arpey, managing director of global investment bank Credit Suisse’s Asset Management Division and manager of the $73 million Indiana Future Fund for BioCrossroads, the state’s life sciences economicdevelopment initiative. Ron Ellis, co-founder, president and CEO of Lafayettebased Endocyte Inc., a biotechnology company focused on the treatment of cancer through receptor-targeted…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Life sciences patents still alive after Supreme decision

In late April, the U.S. Supreme Court decided an important case-KSR International v. Teleflex Inc.-that addressed the test for determining whether a patent is obvious and therefore invalid. As is often the case, the court’s opinion set off considerable speculation about how broadly it should be interpreted: Does it establish a broad, general principle? Is it creating a trend that patents are more likely to be found obvious in the future? Or is its significance limited to the patent in…

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Startup drug firm lands veteran help: Immune Works, a fledgling firm with a promising lung drug, attracts former Indiana Health Industry Forum leader Lange

A startup firm using Indiana University medical research to treat a fatal lung disease is raising money for clinical trials and has recruited a prominent life sciences veteran to lead the effort. Michael Klemsz, an associate professor at the IU School of Medicine, and Dr. David Wilkes, director of the school’s Center for Immunobiology, founded Immune Works LLC in January 2006 along with Ronald Meeusen. Meeusen, a former Dow-AgroSciences researcher and BioCrossroads executive, served as a part-time president and CEO…

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Indiana’s life sciences resources to be catalogued:

An idea fermenting for some time in the minds of several Indiana Health Industry Forum insiders has solidified into a plan to catalogue all life sciences-related resources across the state. The not-for-profit group, which promotes economic development in the health care and life sciences industries, will use the information to create strategies for communities, regions and the state to boost Indiana’s growth in the industry. Companies including Eli Lilly and Co., Roche Diagnostics and Zimmer Holdings have put the state…

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VIEWPOINT: Domestic ‘insourcing’ our way to job growth

Anchor Lou Dobbs of CNN is a pest to some folks and a hero for others. His recurring economic message laments a view of U.S. workers losing out as companies send jobs overseas. Dobbs’ critics, of course, cite his convenient omission of the many interna tional companies that invest in U.S. communities through new manufacturing plants, research facilities and other initiatives. Love the debate or detest it, but consider this: Hasn’t Dobbs helped stir a discussion about how the new…

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Speeding Toward Better Health: Regenstrief Institute continues to fine-tune a medical-records system that many think could someday become a national model

Regenstrief Institute continues to fine-tune a medical-records system that many think could someday become a national model The Regenstrief Institute is a racing team. Only instead of drivers and grease monkeys, the Indianapolis-based medical research group has doctors and computer geeks. And instead of a race car, Regenstrief runs a massive computer database with 35 years of medical records from Indianapolis-area patients. But Regenstrief’s mission is still all about speed. The not-for-profit is driving to discover better ways to care…

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State beefs up incentives available to tech companies:

Companies receiving a Phase 1 SBIR match from the state need to apply for second-stage funding by July 20. Applications can be downloaded on the IEDC Web site. The proposal for funds should be no longer than 12 pages and include a commercialization plan describing how the product would be moved to market and any challenges that would need to be overcome. The proposal also should include a budget describing the funds required for The Indiana Economic Development Corp. has…

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NOTIONS: Oh, the things we worry about in modern America

My wife, Cheri, and I live in one of those newfangled, don’tstray-from-the-mainstream neighborhoods. It’s governed by wellmeaning “covenants and restrictions.” It has “architectural control guidelines.” These documents were formulated by a “development control committee” to “enhance the value and appearance of the community.” (We’re especially concerned with the “value” part, until our property-tax bills arrive, at which point we protest the assessed value.) Included among the controls in our neighborhood is a color palette. I imagine some designer back in…

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IU life sciences startup attracts former Lilly exec: INphoton attempts to commercialize high-tech cellular imaging techniques

It doesn’t have a headquarters or any full-time employees yet. But local life sciences startup INphoton LLC has attracted something equally important: an experienced manager. This month, INphoton hired Steven Plump, Eli Lilly and Co.’s former chief marketing officer, as its CEO. Plump, who retired from Lilly in 2006 after a 30-year career there, hopes to commercialize the high-tech research imaging techniques that INphoton’s founders discovered in Indiana University laboratories. In the process, INphoton could cut pharmaceutical companies’ cost of…

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Agriculture goes urban: New academy plans to show city students that there’s more to horticulture than farming

Indiana’s stature as one of the nation’s top producers of corn and soybeans is as enduring as the fertile farmland in which the crops are grown. But a new initiative plans to introduce urban high school students in Indianapolis to a bushel of opportunities within the agriculture industry that extends well beyond farming. The Hoosier Agribusiness and Science Academy is a partnership between state government and Ivy Tech Community College in which students from the Lawrence Early College High School…

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Orphan Lilly antibiotic spurs $86.3 million IPO plan: Targanta Therapeutics aims to commercialize drug

A biotech company that’s attempting to commercialize an antibiotic developed by Eli Lilly and Co. has filed for an $86.3 million initial public offering. Targanta Therapeutics Corp. two years ago bought the rights to Lilly’s skin infection treatment, oritavancin. The company briefly had its headquarters in Indianapolis before moving it to Cambridge, Mass., last year. Lilly will see a big payoff if Targanta succeeds. The company’s IPO filing says it must pay the Indianapolis pharma giant $10 million when oritavancin…

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CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: ‘Rip’ is just right for CICP

It’s been 15 months since Central Indiana Corporate Partnership CEO Mark Miles wrote in these pages that he felt like Rip Van Winkle when he returned to the city after being away for 15 years. Miles has done anything but sleep since he got back. Neither has the CICP board of directors. That group should be congratulated for making an outstanding choice of a new leader and for taking bold steps forward. This seems to have been a perfect match…

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