Lilly to build $470M manufacturing plant in North Carolina
Eli Lilly and Co. said it considered sites in Indianapolis and Pennsylvania but chose North Carolina for quality of life, cost of operations and geographical diversity.
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Life science companies can learn from failure if they stay flexible, experts say
Endocyte Inc.'s decision two years ago to shelve its own pipeline and look for other opportunities was a difficult call that eventually paid off for investors, its former CEO said Friday at IBJ’s Life Sciences Power Breakfast.
Trump health secretary: Drugmakers must help cut prices, or else
Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services and a former executive of Eli Lilly and Co., said Monday that the Trump administration plans to turn up the heat on uncooperative pharma firms.
Rare loss for Big Pharma will cost industry billions
Drugmakers will have to offer a much more generous discount to Medicare beneficiaries who fall into the so-called donut hole coverage gap.
In otherwise bright quarter, Lilly takes nearly $3B in charges
The Indianapolis-based drug company took a $1 billion charge for its sweeping early-retirement program and a $2.9 billion charge to repatriate cash in the wake of Congress' passage of tax reform.
Lilly, Pfizer get boost for non-opioid pain drug
The companies say the drug, now in late-stage clinical trials, could be more effective for pain treatment than opioids—a dangerous category of pain killers that includes hydrocodone, morphine and fentanyl—without the abuse potential of such medications.
Lilly hires ‘powerhouse’ D.C. lobbyist
Leigh Ann Pusey will join Eli Lilly and Co. next month as senior vice president for corporate affairs and communications.
Pharma lobbying group ousts 22 drugmakers amid U.S. pricing debate
The pharmaceutical industry’s powerful Washington, D.C., trade association, which includes Eli Lilly and Co., fell in size by almost two dozen companies after revising membership rules amid the debate over U.S. drug prices.
Pharma stocks slide after Trump’s vow to control drug costs
President-elect Donald Trump promised to drive down the cost of medicines, defying investors who saw a boon in his election last month and injecting himself again into a contentious economic debate.
Pharmaceutical firm plans $10.4M in new equipment, 60 jobs
The company has requested a tax break from Indianapolis officials on the project that would save it about $484,000 over eight years.
Drug ads drive up prices, offer no clear benefits
Tony Cox failed to point out that we are only one of very few countries in the world that allow direct-to-consumer advertising.
Lilly’s 2016 sales, profit guidance falls short of predictions
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co., which has promised to return to growth after a half-decade of falling revenue, indicated that 2016 earnings might be below analysts’ estimates.
Lilly’s heart study sets up showdown with Novo’s Victoza
Unprecedented results from a cardiovascular study on a diabetes medicine sold by Eli Lilly and Co. turns up the pressure on rival Novo Nordisk, which will release data from a similar study on its competing drug next year.
How ‘losing’ the headquarters of two promising drug firms could help Indiana
The fact that Assembly Biosciences Inc. and AgeneBio now list New York and Baltimore, respectively, as their headquarters cities doesn’t hurt Indiana and could help the state, says David Johnson, CEO of BioCrossroads.
Company news
Little Star Center will absorb the Verbal Behavioral Center for Autism into its Carmel location. The Verbal Behavioral Center, which opened in 2003, will close its facility at 96th Street and Keystone Avenue by April 30. Little Star, which opened in 2002, also now has locations in Bloomington and Lafayette. The consolidation will add up […]
Most drug money in Indiana funds research. Is that good?
With federal research funding declining, drug companies are taking a larger role funding the medical research happening at IU and universities around the country. That’s not the same thing as paying to market drugs, but it’s hardly without controversy.
Lilly’s latest sales strategy: the soft sell
Eli Lilly and Co. thinks it has a secret weapon to return to growth. No, it’s not a new blockbuster drug—although Lilly will most likely have several new products hit the market this year and next. Rather, it’s an unorthodox, softer approach put into play by its U.S. sales force.
Company news
Assembly Pharmaceuticals, a company with roots in Bloomington and San Francisco, has attracted an undisclosed amount of investment from New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson Development Corp., Indianapolis-based Twilight Ventures, Zionsville-based Luson Bioventures, BioCrossroads Indiana Seed Fund II and private investors. Assembly is developing drugs that could cure chronic hepatitis B virus, or HBV, infection. Chronic HBV affects an estimated 350 million people worldwide, causing cirrhosis and liver failure and in some cases liver cancer. More than 600,000 deaths each year are attributable to HBV, which can be suppressed with lifelong therapy but which has no known cure. Assembly was formed in 2012 by Indiana University professor Adam Zlotnick and Dr. Uri Lopatin, who led HBV programs at Gilead Sciences and Roche Pharmaceuticals. Assembly has licensed intellectual property from the IU Research and Technology Corp. that was discovered in Zlotnick’s laboratory. Other co-founders of the company include IU chemistry professor Richard DiMarchi; Derek Small, president of Luson Bioventures; and William Turner, a former medicinal chemist at Lilly Research Laboratories.
Carmel-based nursing home developer Mainstreet Property Group LLC promised investors returns of 14 percent to 18 percent for investments in nursing homes it is now building around Indiana, according to a private document obtained by the Associated Press. Under its business model, Mainstreet arranges financing for its facilities, then leases the completed buildings to a private operator. The buildings are then sold to HealthLease Properties Inc., a real estate investment trust controlled by Zeke Turner, who is also CEO of Mainstreet. According to the document, Mainstreet was looking to raise $60 million to build 12 new nursing homes at a cost of $199 million combined. In the case of three nursing homes it planned, Mainstreet expected to sell each for roughly $20 million, collecting between $3.3 million and $5.3 million on each sale, which would represent profits of 16.5 percent to 26.5 percent. The document does not include expected sale prices for the other nine facilities. Some previous facilities appeared to have generated even larger profits. In the case of Wellbrooke of Westfield, a new health care facility Mainstreet completed last year, investors put in $750,000 and made a $4.5 million profit, according to the Associated Press. For eight nursing home sales to HealthLease detailed in the Mainstreet document, Mainstreet investors made $34 million on an investment of $14 million, for a $20 million profit.
Indiana University's trustees have selected a downtown Evansville site for a nearly $70 million health education and research center planned by IU's medical school and three other schools. The board of trustees approved the location Friday following a recommendation by IU President Michael McRobbie. The University of Evansville, the University of Southern Indiana and Ivy Tech Community College also plan to offer programs at the center that could draw some 2,000 health care students.
Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. has donated nearly $12.8 million to help defeat a ballot initiative that would give California regulators power to reject increases in health policy premiums, according to Bloomberg News, citing data provided by the California-based research organization MapLight. Premiums for family medical coverage in California have increased 185 percent since 2002, with average monthly premiums for single coverage at $572 in 2013, compared with $490 nationally, according to a report released in January by California HealthCare Foundation, an Oakland-based not-for-profit. The ballot initiative would require insurers to disclose publicly and justify proposed rate changes that affect individual and small employer customers. It would also give the state insurance commissioner authority to reject increases. About 35 states, including Indiana, have authority to approve or deny rate changes, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
Eli Lilly and Co. saw little effect on its stock price after a jury in a federal court in Louisiana ordered Lilly to pay $3 billion in damages to patients who took the diabetes medicine Actos. That decision had no practical impact on Lilly because the maker of Actos, Japan-based Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., had agreed to indemnify Lilly against any legal damages. Lilly sold Actos for Takeda in the United States from 1999 until 2006. The jury ordered Actos to pay $6 billion in damages after finding that the drug companies hid the cancer risks of Actos. Takeda and Lilly said they would appeal the judgment. Even without a successful appeal, legal experts told Bloomberg News the $9 billion in damages is likely to be reduced because it is out of proportion to the documented damages in the case.
Ohio-based ViaQuest Inc. has acquired the Indiana operations of TriStar Home Health and Hospice, a division of Louisville-based Trilogy Health Services. The acquisition includes seven home health care branches in Evansville, Fowler, Huntingburg, Lafayette and Muncie, and two in Terre Haute. The locations operate under one of three brand names: Vibrant Home Health Care, Care One Homecare Services and Serenity Hospice. The locations employ a total of 180 people. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Endocyte stock doubles after key approval in Europe
The stock price of Endocyte Inc. skyrocketed by as much as 130 percent Friday morning after the drug company got a thumbs up in Europe to market its first drug and received a new round of favorable clinical trial results.
Company news
Eli Lilly and Co. is reportedly willing to pay as much as $3.7 billion to acquire a Massachusetts-based biotech company with a troubled leukemia drug, according to the U.K. newspaper The Mail. The paper claims that Indianapolis-based Lilly is the leading suitor for Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc., along with U.K.-based GlaxoSmithKline plc and Ireland-based Shire PLC. All three firms made “friendly approaches” to Ariad, according to The Mail, and are willing to pay up to $20 per share. Ariad currently has 185.7 million shares outstanding, meaning such a purchase price would total $3.7 billion. The Mail is not a regular source of financial news, and its article bases its report on “whispers heard across the Pond” by “dealers.” Lilly spokesman Mark Taylor declined to comment on the rumors.
Hill-Rom Holdings Inc. said it will eliminate about 350 jobs over the next two years as a cost-saving move after the maker of hospital equipment saw profit grow slower than expected. Batesville-based Hill-Rom said 200 of the cuts will occur in the United States, with the balance occurring in Europe. Because the cuts will be made, in part, via a voluntary retirement program, Hill-Rom said it does not yet know how many cuts will occur in Indiana. The U.S. portion of the cuts are scheduled to be complete by the end of March. The European job cuts will play out over the next two years. The cuts, which represent about 5 percent of Hill-Rom’s 6,800 workers, will save the company $30 million per year, boosting profit by about 35 cents per share. Over the past four years, Hill-Rom has already eliminated about 1,000 jobs. “Economic uncertainty for our customers continues to impact the timing and the level of capital spending for our key product categories. The weak order rates in the last two quarters and the volatility over the past year reflect the challenges we continue to experience in our core market,” Hill-Rom CEO John Greisch told investors last week. Hill-Rom reported earnings per share of 22 cents in the three months ended Dec. 31, down 44 percent from the same quarter of 2012. Revenue fell 8 percent from the previous year, to $393 million.
The Indiana Senate passed a bill Thursday that would halt construction on nursing homes. Senate Bill 173 would also prohibit additional comprehensive care beds at existing facilities, according to the StatehouseFile.com, but continuing care retirement homes and assisted living would be exempt from the construction moratorium. “Building new facilities will add more unneeded beds at a time when utilization of skilled nursing facilities is decreasing,” said Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, who authored the bill. The bill now moves to the House for consideration.
The Indiana Medical Licensing Board suspended the license of Dr. Frank Campbell, an Anderson physician linked to drug-related deaths of 31 people. The Herald Bulletin reported the board also fined Campbell $500 on each of the six counts of violating physician regulations filed by state authorities. Campbell can seek reinstatement in a year. Campbell was medical director of the Madison County Community Health Center until the Drug Enforcement Administration questioned him last year over allowing two physician assistants to prescribe controlled substances using prescriptions he pre-signed. Campbell said he trusted the assistants and pre-signed prescriptions for expediency. An Indiana Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigator submitted a court affidavit saying 31 of Campbell's patients died drug-related deaths since January 2009.