Chrysler plans 400 more jobs, $212M expansion in Kokomo
Chrysler Group LLC on Monday night said it was planning to spend as much $212 million on another expansion in Kokomo that could add more than 400 jobs.
Chrysler Group LLC on Monday night said it was planning to spend as much $212 million on another expansion in Kokomo that could add more than 400 jobs.
Tipton officials approved a 10-year tax abatement worth $2.5 million to help the company launch production in a nearly 800,000-square-foot plant at U.S. 31 and State Road 28, about 25 miles north of Carmel.
Chrysler Group LLC is seeking tax incentives for its transmission plant in Kokomo at the same time it's asking Tipton County officials for similar incentives on a vacant plant.
The pledge from the provider of online consumer reviews came as part of a larger announcement Tuesday, in which nine companies operating within the state said they will add a total of 2,550 jobs by 2018.
Three fast-growing Indianapolis technology companies—Angie’s List, ExactTarget and BidPal—plan to add up to 1,500 jobs collectively over the next half-decade, officials announced Tuesday morning.
The automaker has requested incentives to launch production in a nearly 800,000-square-foot plant that's been vacant since being built four years ago.
The RND Group Inc., which makes software for medical-device and diagnostic firms, will expand its operations in Indianapolis, adding as many as 25 jobs by 2016. The company employs 27 full-time people along with the equivalent of 14 full-time contractors. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. agreed to give RND Group $700,000 in tax credits if it fulfills its job-creation commitment. The city of Indianapolis is considering additional tax incentives.
Indianapolis-based Nico Corp. has raised another $6.5 million in venture capital from its existing shareholders and board members. Nico’s Myriad line of products allow minimally invasive removal of brain tumors and tissue in adults and children. Now, Nico wants to use the new round of capital to develop technology to address diseases that were often considered inoperable, such as metastatic brain cancer, intracerebral hemorrhages and glioblastoma multiforme. Since 2008, Nico has raised $20 million, with half of that coming in 2009. Investors participating in its latest fundraising round included Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, River Cities Capital Fund, CHV Capital, Cornelius Private Investments and Twilight Venture Partners. Nico was founded in 2007 by many of the executives and investors that created Suros Surgical Systems Inc., which was sold in 2006 to Massachusetts-based Hologic Inc. for $248 million.
West Lafayette-based Perfinity Biosciences Inc. has partnered with Japan-based Shimadzu Corp. to market and distribute its technology, which automates the preparation and analysis of protein samples in research and diagnostic labs. The Perfinity Integrated Digestion Platform cuts down sample preparation time from 18 hours to 30 minutes or less. The companies worked together to launch Perfinity’s technology in the United States earlier this year. Financial details about the agreement were not disclosed.
Micro Machine Co. LLC, an orthopedic medical-device manufacturer, will build out a new manufacturing plant in Warsaw, creating as many as 60 jobs by 2015. The company, based in Kalamazoo, Mich., will invest $2.8 million in its expansion to produce parts for Warsaw-based Zimmer Holdings Inc. and Warsaw-based DePuy Orthopaedics Inc., and perhaps other companies. Micro Machine already employs eight in Warsaw in addition to 72 in Kalamazoo. The Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered Micro Machine up to $585,000 in tax incentives and training grants if it fulfills its job-creation plans. Kosciusko County approved additional property tax abatement for Micro Machine.
Indianapolis-based RND Group Inc. said it plans to spend $1.3 million to update and equip its 13,510-square-foot headquarters. The company has 27 employees.
Catamaran Corp. will add 50 jobs in Indianapolis over the next year to help it provide pharmacy-benefit-management services to the Indiana Medicaid program. The Illinois-based company will open an office downtown Tuesday to kick off its six-year, $60 million contract with the state. The contract, which officially begins April 1, pledges Catamaran to help Indiana Medicaid control the $800 million it spends every year to provide prescription drugs to Medicaid recipients. Catamaran will process Indiana Medicaid’s 12.5 million annual pharmacy claims, run clinical and technical call centers, handle electronic prescriptions and manage specialty medications. The Indianapolis office, located at 150 W. Market St., will house pharmacists, technicians and support staff.
Two investors in Indianapolis are trying to raise money to fill the gap in early-stage funding for life sciences companies in the Midwest. San Francisco-based CMEA Capital is trying to raise $100 million for early-stage life sciences investments, according to multiple people briefed by CMEA’s Midwest partner in the fund, Kent Hawryluk. Hawryluk, a co-founder of Carmel-based drug development firm Marcadia Biotech, will oversee Midwest investments of the fund from Indianapolis, with a focus on biotech and pharmaceutical companies, according to people familiar with his plans. In addition, Oscar Moralez, managing director of the StepStone Angels network, plans to start pitching a new fund to investors early next year. His plans are to raise $10 million to $20 million to invest in technology companies, including life sciences firms, in Indiana and surrounding states. “We feel the timing is right,” said Moralez. He described the fund he wants to raise as, in part, a "sidecar" to help the seven companies now supported by StepStone Angels—six of which are life sciences companies—to continue to get the cash they need to grow.
Due to the closing of Franciscan St. Francis Health’s Beech Grove hospital, Select Specialty Hospital-Beech Grove relocated from Beech Grove to a new freestanding location at 8060 Knue Road in the Castleton neighborhood. In its new location, Select Specialty Hospital has 45 beds, on-site CT machines, lab services, a rehabilitation area and a cafeteria. The hospital will now be called Select Specialty Hospital – Indianapolis.
A North Carolina-based maker of cancer-fighting ultrasound machines plans to create 27 jobs at its Indianapolis facility over the next three years. US HIFU LLC will add positions paying an average of $36 an hour at its offices at 4000 Pendleton Way, on the northeast side of the city along Interstate 465 near Pendleton Pike. The company already employs 15 people at that location. The new jobs are for engineers, researchers and support personnel to help US HIFU make its Sonablate 500 system, which uses "high-intensity and focused ultrasound" to treat cancer with fewer side effects. US HIFU, founded in 2004, has yet to receive regulatory approval for its technology, but the company is studying it in a U.S. clinical trial for treating prostate cancer and around the world as a potential treatment for other cancers. The new jobs were announced Monday morning by the Indiana Economic Development Corp., which promised the company up to $350,000 in conditional tax credits and up to $50,000 in training grants. Also, the company has applied to Marion County for property tax abatement.
Novia CareClinics LLC opened the first multi-employer clinic for downtown employers Monday at its headquarters at 429 N. Pennsylvania St. Novia, which operates 50 clinics statewide, made its latest clinic open to other employers. Harrison College, the law firm Plews Shadley Racher & Braun LLP and McFarling Foods Inc. have joined so far. The 1,200-square-foot health and wellness center, first made public in July, will be staffed with a physician and nurses, offering primary care services 40 hours per week. The four companies using it have more than 500 employees combined at locations in or near downtown. Novia has said it needs to sign up 1,000 employees to make the cost per employee reasonable. If employer demand proves high, Novia could expand its downtown clinic to as large as 2,000 square feet, add a second physician or nurse practitioner, and serve as many as 2,000 employees.
European Union regulators have agreed to review the drug vintafolide, discovered by West Lafayette-based Endocyte Inc., bringing it one step closer to reaching the market. Endocyte and its development partner, New Jersey-based Merck & Co. Inc., said the European Medicines Agency will review vintafolide, formerly known as EC145, as a treatment for ovarian cancer that is resistant to platinum-based chemotherapy. The agency also will review their application for an imaging agent that can help identify patients most likely to benefit from the drug. According to the Associated Press, vintafolide and the diagnostic agent both have orphan drug status, which means competing products will be barred from the market for up to 10 years if they are approved. Merck will pay Endocyte $5 million because the application was accepted.
The government dropped its antitrust concerns about health insurer WellPoint Inc.'s proposed acquisition of Amerigroup Corp. last week, clearing WellPoint to proceed with the $4.9 billion deal. According to the Associated Press, U.S. Department of Justice officials had objected to the proposed merger because WellPoint and Amerigroup are the only providers of Medicaid managed care plans in northern Virginia. To address that concern, Amerigroup agreed to sell its Virginia business, Amerigroup Virginia Inc., to Inova Health System Foundation. It did not disclose financial terms of that deal, which was announced in September and is conditioned on the closing of the WellPoint-Amerigroup merger. The sale to Inova ensures that Medicaid users will have at least two options for managed care, the Justice Department said.
A North Carolina-based maker of cancer-fighting ultrasound machines plans to create 27 jobs paying an average of $36 an hour at its Indianapolis facility over the next three years.
Indiana has a wind resource of 148,228 megawatts, the 15th biggest in the country, according to industry trade group the American Wind Energy Association. And its growing.
It would be surprising if we could not today identify a good many folks who rely on government largesse in lieu of hard work.
Troy, Mich.-based Meritor Inc., a global supplier of commercial truck parts, said it will consolidate North American remanufacturing operations by moving production from Ontario, Canada, to its facility in Hendricks County.
Indianapolis-based Indigo Biosystems Inc., a scientific software provider, announced Monday morning that it plans to add 63 jobs by 2015 as part of a $1.4 million expansion.
Fishers officials are finalizing a deal with a local developer for a mixed-use project that would launch a long-awaited transformation of the town’s suburban core.
Decatur, Ill.-based ADM Milling Co. is seeking tax incentives related to its plans to construct a six-story building to increase its milling capacity. The expansion will help it retain 53 workers.
Indianapolis-based BioStorage Technologies Inc. is planning to add 108 jobs in the next five years as part of a $7 million expansion and is seeking financial incentives from the city for the second time in three years.
And back again. Women’s Health Alliance, a seven-doctor OB/GYN practice, will move Nov. 19 into the medical office building next to St. Vincent Carmel Hospital and will make that facility its main location for delivering babies. Women’s Health had been near the Indiana University Health North Hospital since it opened in 2005. Before that, however, Women’s Health Alliance had been affiliated with the St. Vincent Women’s Hospital on West 86th Street. Calls to the practice, which also includes four nurse practitioners, were not returned in time for IBJ’s deadline. However, the shift is the latest move by Indianapolis-area physicians to align with different hospital systems, as each health system tries to secure the referrals necessary to keep their beds filled. St. Vincent Health and IU Health, the two largest hospital systems in Indiana, have been particularly fierce competitors in the physician chase.
West Lafayette-based Endocyte Inc. suffered a 14-percent decline in its stock price on Friday after it made no change in its time line for completing a Phase 3 trial of its leading drug candidate, vintafolide, for treatment of ovarian cancer. Vintafolide, formerly known as EC145, is progressing toward market approval in the European Union. But in the United States, the Food and Drug Adminstration has required Endocyte to complete its Phase 3 trial before it will consider the drug for market approval. That trial had been delayed by short supplies of a comparison drug, called Doxil. Now that those shortages have ended, Wall Street analysts were hoping the time line for the trial might speed up. But Endocyte officials said they still expect data from the trial in the first half of 2014. Endocyte also reported that it lost $1.2 million, or 3 cents per share, during the three months ended Sept. 30. Analysts were expecting Endocyte's partnership with New Jersey-based Merck & Co. Inc. to push it out of the red, making 1 cent per share, according to a Thomson Reuters survey. Endocyte's quarterly revenue of $12.4 million also fell below analysts' expectations of $12.9 million.
Eli Lilly and Co.’s experimental Alzheimer’s drug did what it was designed to do: It removed free-floating pieces of the protein amyloid from patients’ brains and carried them to the bloodstream. That conclusion, issued Oct. 29 by a team of outside researchers, further confirms that Lilly’s drug solanezumab has some effect on the memory-sapping disease and the mechanism believed to cause it. Two large clinical trials of solanezumab demonstrated no effect on amyloid plaques seen in PET scans nor another protein associated with Alzheimer’s, called tau. Analysts continue to expect regulators to require another large clinical trial of the drug before they approve it for the market. That delay, coupled with the small effects so far documented for solanezumab, have analysts adjusting their potential sales estimates down. Whereas estimates ranged from $4 billion to $10 billion a few months ago, one recent estimate issued by Credit Suisse analyst Catherine Arnold predicts solanezumab will reach peak sales of $2.5 billion, according to a report from Reuters. That’s still big, but not quite the single-handed savior analysts thought solanezumab could be for Lilly, which is struggling through patent expirations on numerous blockbuster drugs.
Indianapolis Colts rookie quarterback Andrew Luck announced a four-year sponsorship agreement with Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health. The Riley/Luck “Change the Play” initiative will include programs such as sports performance camps, educational tools for kids, and Luck speaking engagements. Luck will be paid to promote the hospital and the initiative, but financial terms were not disclosed. Luck won't be the first Colts quarterback to partner with a hospital. Peyton Manning, who departed the Colts last off-season for Denver, signed one of his first local deals as a professional football player in 1998 with St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital. Manning's deal with St. Vincent grew over the years until the hospital's children's facility was named the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent in 2007. Despite his move to Denver, Manning still remains active with St. Vincent. St. Vincent used its association with Manning to try to chip away at Riley's market share in children's and pediatric care.
Eli Lilly and Co. will spend $140 million to construct an 88,000-square-foot plant southwest of downtown to make cartridges for insulin pens. The Indianapolis-based drugmaker announced details of the expansion Nov. 1 at a press conference on the site of the new plant on South Harding Street. The new plant, first announced Oct. 30, will adjoin Lilly’s existing manufacturing complex, known as the Lilly Technology Center. About 100 workers will staff the plant, which will be constructed by spring 2014 and ready for operations in 2015. But only “some” of that number will be additional jobs on top of the 3,000 manufacturing workers Lilly already employs in Indianapolis, according to Lilly. Wages for the new jobs will be similar to those earned by Lilly's existing manufacturing work force, although Lilly officials declined to disclose details. Lilly officials also said they plan to apply for tax abatements from the city. Lilly needs the new plant because demand for insulin continues to rise in the United States and globally. The company already makes insulin cartridges in Italy and France, and will continue to expand those plants, too.
About 100 workers will staff the new plant, which will be constructed by spring 2014 and ready for operations in 2015. But only “some” of that number will be new hires.
A little post-Halloween candy for Property Lines readers: Check out the renderings of an unsuccessful Mass Ave redevelopment proposal from locally based Deylen Development.