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Samy Meroueh, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, will receive $720,000 over a four-year period from the American Cancer Society to fund his cancer research. Meroueh’s research focuses on uPAR, a cell surface receptor that exists only in cancer cells that metastasize, making it an excellent target for the development of drugs. Metastasis, or the spreading of cancer from one organ to another, is the main reason that more than 90 percent of patients succumb to cancer, according to Meroueh. With earlier funding from the National Institutes of Health, Meroueh’s lab in Indianapolis has identified small molecules that attach to uPAR on the surface of cancer cells in metastatic tumors. He is now concentrating his research on two experimental compounds to examine their ability to block metastasis of breast cancer in mice. Meroueh hopes to later link his compounds to existing chemotherapy agents to deliver them directly to cancer cells, while sparing healthy cells.

Eli Lilly and Co. has joined a race to launch a new class of drugs to lower heart disease risk. An experimental drug under development by Lilly doubled levels of good cholesterol in a Phase 2 clinical trial, according to Bloomberg News. Good cholesterol, or HDL, sweeps the bad form of the fatty substance, called LDL, out of arteries, helping to reduce clogs. Lilly’s drug, called evacetrapib, boosted HDL as much as 129 percent and lowered bad cholesterol as much as 36 percent, the Indianapolis-based drugmaker reported on Nov. 15. Two other companies—New Jersey-based Merck & Co. Inc. and Switzerland-based Roche Holdings AG, have already moved similar drugs to the third and final phase of human trials, according to Bloomberg. Both drugs are predicted to be blockbusters with more than $5 billion in annual sales if they are approved. All three rivals aim to avoid the toxicity seen with a previous good cholesterol drug from New York-based Pfizer Inc. that was abandoned in 2006 after it triggered deaths in a study.

The St. Vincent Heart Center of Indiana was named one of 50 cardiovascular hospitals in the country by market research firm Thomson Reuters. According to the firm, 97 percent of all heart inpatients at U.S. hospitals survive their procedures and 96 percent remain complication free. Still, the top 50 hospitals have even better results, including 23 percent fewer deaths for bypass surgery patients, a 40-percent lower rate of heart failure complications, fewer readmissions, shorter hospital stays and costs that were lower by $4,200 per patient. Thomson Reuters based its analysis on data from the 2009 and 2010 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review, which includes nearly all senior patients. The St. Vincent Heart Center was the only Indianapolis hospital named to the list this year.