Doctors breathe a sigh of relief
As doctors threaten to drop Medicare patients, Congress delays cuts for another six months.
J.K. Wall
Articles
Lilly’s Effient steps forward, then back
A day after doctors were alerted to a black-box warning that could slow sales of Effient’s main competitor,
Plavix,
a medical journal published research showing that patients suffered 43-percent more cancer tumors on Effient than on Plavix.
Raytheon lands $250 million Navy electronics contract
Workers at Raytheon Technical Services’ Indianapolis facility will spend four more years working on software to control electronics
on the Navy’s V-22 Osprey aircraft.
Marcadia enlists Lilly to help develop new diabetes drug
The two companies will jointly develop a short-acting glucagon drug, which they hope proves more convenient than Lilly’s
current Glucagon for patients with severe hypoglycemia.
Group tries to turn Sunday booze ban into July 4 fireworks
An alliance of drugstores, groceries and gas stations is using the July Fourth holiday—which falls this year on Sunday—to
drum up more support for ending Indiana’s ban on Sunday retail sales of alcohol.
Hoosier firms that rely on innovation pine for patent reform
One key change would grant patents to the first inventor to file an application, not the first who can prove to have made
the invention first.
OneAmerica to acquire McCready and Keene
McCready and Keene Inc. is the fifth-largest employee benefits firm in the Indianapolis area. It employs 95 people nationally, 82 of them in Indianapolis, according to IBJ research.
Q&A
David Stocum is the director of the Center for Regenerative Biology and Medicine at the IUPUI School of Science.
He and his team are studying how amphibians regenerate parts of their bodies to see if there are ways to induce humans to
regenerate tissue that is lost or damaged. The center has about 20 researchers and funding of about $14 million to fuel its
quest.
Hospital jobs keep growing in recession
Hospitals continued to be a stable and slightly growing source of jobs and wages in Indiana—for better and for worse.
The sector paid $7.3 billion to 127,000 Hoosiers in 2008, according to the latest data from the American Hospital Association.
Medicare cuts hit doctors as Congress feuds
Physician offices will begin receiving payments from the Medicare that are 21.3-percent below
what they’ve been getting so far this year. Doctors still expect Congress to reverse the payment cuts, but physicians
and the Medicare program will have to reprocess claims, costing both extra money.
Lilly layoffs pare communications department
The giant drugmaker is in the process of trimming 35 percent—or about 19 people—from its 55-person communications
staff. Most of that staff is based in Indianapolis.
Braly’s political skirmishes hurting insurer, critics say
When WellPoint Inc. named Angela Braly its CEO three years ago, it touted her experience dealing with politicians and government
regulators. But WellPoint is now the poster child for health insurer bad behavior—credited in Washington with reviving a
dead health reform bill the company opposed.
Indy firm launches bedsore weapon
The latest idea from Dr. James Spahn, an Indianapolis health care entrepreneur, should help hospitals and nursing homes do
a better job of preventing severe bedsores, or pressure ulcers. That’s good, because Medicare and private health insurers
increasingly won’t pay to treat them.
Indiana moves up in med tech rankings
Medical technology companies employed 19,950 Hoosiers in 2007 and supported another 35,000 jobs in supplier companies, according
to an analysis funded by an industry trade group.
Research reforms will force Lilly, others to test how drugs stack up
The federal government is currently doling out $1.1 billion in stimulus funds to pay for research that compares multiple medical
treatments against one another to determine which is most effective. Drug companies like Eli Lilly and Co. are wary that comparative-effectiveness
research could threaten their sales.
Indiana bringing information revolution to public schools
The state is building a massive data system with a tough-love intent of rewarding good educators and schools and hammering
poor performers.
Lilly taps O’Connor as state lobbyist
O’Connor, chief deputy mayor under former Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson, started Monday as Lilly's director of
state government affairs—working again under Peterson.
Study: Online doc ratings mostly positive
Angie’s List physician rating service has been controversial since it started in 2008. But an academic journal article
is now telling the docs to relax. Nearly 90 percent of patient comments on sites like Angie’s List are positive.
High unemployment prompts new company, The Learning Index
A couple of Hoosier entrepreneurs think they can take their career information web site national.