Life sciences finance pro heading to startup
If a biotech startup were akin to a rock band, Kristin Sherman might be the keyboardist. She’s not front-and-center on the stage, but the ballad wouldn’t be as dynamic without her pounding the chords.
If a biotech startup were akin to a rock band, Kristin Sherman might be the keyboardist. She’s not front-and-center on the stage, but the ballad wouldn’t be as dynamic without her pounding the chords.
The departure of Keith Connors from WTHR-TV Channel 13 will leave three out of the four local network television stations without a news director.
Indianapolis-based regulatory consulting firm Anson Group named Scott Thiel its director of connected health operations. In that role, he will help Anson’s customers commercialize wireless, mobile and networked technologies. Before joining Anson in 2011, Thiel served as a global regulatory affairs manager at Roche Diagnostics Corp. He holds degrees from Ball State University and Indiana Wesleyan University.
Anson Group named Scott Durlacher its director of compliance. Durlacher has worked with Anson since 2009, serving as the lead on several compliance projects. He holds degrees from Purdue University and Vanderbilt University.
Jeanelle Regal has been appointed director for Senior Promise, a Franciscan St. Francis Health-based program that provides insurance services to Hoosiers 50 and older. Regal received a bachelor’s in psychology from Andrews University in Michigan, and later earned a master’s in social work at Indiana University.
Are you tired of hearing about politics and the election? Then shake hands with a brother Elk, because I, too, am glad it’s over.
Early-stage venture capital has been harder and harder to come by for life sciences companies in recent years, but two Indianapolis investors are working to raise sizable funds to help fill the gap.
Richard DiMarchi helped develop the sepsis-treating drug Xigris for Eli Lilly and Co. He also co-founded Marcadia Biotech, which Roche acquired in 2010 for an initial upfront payment of $287 million.
While Eli Lilly and Co.’s stock price is up 16 percent in the past four months, a new analyst covering the company thinks it has more room to grow. And that’s even without launching a new Alzheimer’s drug anytime soon.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. is looking to renew its commitment to life sciences by creating a $30 million venture fund. The amount dedicated to one sector would be equal to the state’s allocation for all high-tech startups over the past two years.
The Indiana Economic Development Corp.’s proposal to create a $30 million venture fund dedicated to life sciences startups is good news for a valuable sector of our state economy that has been losing out to the more investor-friendly high-tech sector.
Roche Diagnostics Corp. in Indianapolis ranks 89th on the magazine’s latest “Best Companies to Work For” list and was the only Indiana-based company selected.
Two new health clinics opened on the west side of Indianapolis last week. HealthNet Inc. opened a community health center on West 10th Street, providing primary, pediatric and OB/GYN care, as well as optomemtry, podiatry, behavioral health and social work services. Also, Community Health Network opened a medical office building in Speedway, which is part of its westward expansion after its acquisition of Westview Hospital on West 38th Street. The offices offer primary care, walk-in care, imaging, infusion therapy and occupational health services. Community also will work with the new Marian University College of Osteopathic Medicine to conduct training for medical residents in Speedway.
WellPoint Inc. is still considering former Amerigroup Corp. CEO James Carlson among several finalists to become CEO, Bloomberg News reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. The Indianapolis-based health insurer has delayed defining a role for Carlson, who joined WellPoint through its $4.9 billion acquisition of Amerigroup in December, because he is a contender for the top position, said the person, who asked for anonymity because the information is private. Retired Aetna Inc. CEO Ronald Williams also has been a leading candidate, according to people with knowledge of the deliberations. Carlson, 60, would replace Angela Braly, who was forced out in August amid investor complaints about the company's performance. Carlson built Amerigroup into one of the biggest insurers focused on the growing Medicaid sector. In an e-mail, Kristin Binns, a WellPoint spokeswoman, said the company wouldn’t comment on the CEO search. Maureen McDonnell, an Amerigroup spokeswoman, also declined to discuss the process or Carlson’s role. Katherine Mentus, a spokesman for Williams, declined to comment when reached by telephone. Analysts expect WellPoint to make a decision by the end of February.
Eli Lilly and Co. will have to conduct more studies of its experimental Alzheimer’s drug, but it is getting some outside help. Researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston chose Lilly’s drug solanezumab for a large federally funded study testing whether it's possible to prevent Alzheimer's disease in older people at high risk of developing it, according to the Associated Press. Lilly’s own studies of solanezumab found that it did not help people with moderate to severe Alzheimer's, but it showed some promise against milder disease. Researchers think it might work better if given before symptoms start. The new study will enroll 1,000 patients between age 70 and 85 who show a buildup of plaques in their brains but do not yet show signs of Alzheimer’s, including loss of memory and ability to do daily activities. Lilly’s solanezumab is also one of two drugs being studied in Alzheimer’s patients by researchers at Washington University. The other is made by the Genentech unit of Switzerland-based Roche Holding AG.
Indianapolis-based Defender Direct, a home security dealer, has opened an on-site health clinic, joining a number of other area employers that offer such services. Defender Direct’s 650 employees and their families now can receive primary care at the East 96th Street clinic, operated by Indianapolis-based OurHealth. Indianapolis-based MJ Insurance, which has helped such employers as Interactive Intelligence Inc. and others set up onsite clinics, brokered the deal.
Roche Diagnostics Corp. in Indianapolis ranks 89th on Fortune magazine’s latest annual list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For,” the magazine announced Thursday. In selecting Roche, the only Indiana company to appear on the list, Fortune cited its on-site medical clinic and fitness center, the company's $30,000 budget for intramural sports, and its health insurance plans tiered to income levels. The Indianapolis campus serves as the North American headquarters for the diagnostics business of Switzerland-based Roche Holding AG.
A reverse-commute shuttle that helps Indianapolis residents get to jobs in Carmel and Fishers is being expanded.
With Eli Lilly and Co. set to see patents expire on its best-selling drug at year’s end, it is in the company’s interest to say its pipeline is about to produce new drugs. But the Indianapolis drugmaker may be in a position to submit five new drugs for regulatory approval this year.
Subcontractors like Bo-Mar Industries, a local metal fabrication shop, say they stand to gain from the creation of new rail lines.
Roche AG and Eli Lilly and Co., two drugmakers racing to develop treatments for some of the least understood brain disorders, may gain the most from a U.S. government boost in funding to fully map the human brain.
Researchers suspect the sex hormone known to increase libido and musculature could also play a role in preventing a form of diabetes that tends to strike later in life and afflicts more than 330 million people worldwide.
Eli Lilly and Co. has sued Roche Holding AG’s Genentech unit, asking a court to invalidate patents used to make treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Eli Lilly and Co. has sued Roche Holding AG’s Genentech unit, asking a court to invalidate patents used to make treatments for cancer and autoimmune diseases, Bloomberg News reported. Lilly wants a court to reaffirm the patents behind its own cancer drug Erbitux. According to Lilly’s lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco, Genentech deceived the U.S. Patent Office into issuing patents known as “Cabilly” after one of the inventors. Genentech claims that the process and certain starting materials used to produce Erbitux infringe on parts of the patents, and is pursuing an “aggressive litigation policy to protect its products against competition,” according to the complaint. Erbitux, made by Indianapolis-based Lilly’s ImClone unit, is approved in the United States to treat colon cancer and head and neck tumors. Lilly realized about $400 million in revenue from the drug in 2012. A phone call to Genentech’s media office seeking comment about the lawsuit wasn’t immediately returned.
Indianapolis-based CHV Capital joined Kaiser Permanente Ventures to invest an $8 million funding round for Health Catalyst, a Salt Lake City-based data warehousing company. The company already had raised $33 million in Series B funding to develop its technology, which helps hospitals measure quality data from their electronic medical record systems and report it to regulatory agencies and health insurers. Indiana University Health, the hospital system that is the parent of CHV Capital, already is using Health Catalyst’s technology.
The Indiana Senate voted last week to expand Medicaid using the state-run Healthy Indiana Plan. According to the Associated Press, Gov. Mike Pence and the Republican-led General Assembly have beat back efforts by Democrats to expand coverage using the traditional federal-state Medicaid program for the poor. Instead, they say, expansion should be done through the Healthy Indiana Plan or a similar state-run program, giving the state more control over costs. Expanding HIP would cost the state roughly 3 percent less than expanding Medicaid, state actuary Milliman Inc. estimated on Feb. 25. And supporters say HIP would promote more responsible decisions by enrollees. On the table is an expected $10.5 billion in federal aid for the state over the next seven years. But expanding HIP also could cost the state close to $2 billion over the period. House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said Tuesday that Pence likes the Senate's request for block grants from the federal government instead of matching funds for Indiana’s spending, as is the case with traditional Medicaid. "At least the leadership is all in favor of not using Medicaid expansion as the vehicle here because of the potential for massive cost in the future," Bosma said. Seven Democratic senators voted with all of the chamber's Republicans for the expansion, despite reservations about using HIP. "We don't agree with the bill the way it was written, but we want to make sure it remains alive," said Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage. Tallian asked lawmakers to approve a temporary expansion of Medicaid, for two years, similar to what Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican, is supporting. But her amendment and similar efforts in the House failed.
Warsaw-based Zimmer Holdings Inc. said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice have ended their investigation into a possible violation by Zimmer of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The investigation dates to September 2007. Zimmer is the world’s largest maker of orthopedic implants.
The National Science Foundation has awarded $500,000 to West Lafayette-based Tymora Analytical Operations LLC via a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant. Tymora will use the two-year grant to develop a technology called pIMAGO that helps lab researchers identify new targets for drugs to fight such diseases as cancer, diabetes, neurological disorders and immune system disorders. Tymora, founded by two Purdue University professors, has also received $450,000 in previous grants from the National Institutes of Health.
More than two dozen of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies, including Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co., have agreed to provide funding and other support to Interpol's battle against counterfeit prescription drugs.
A fixture in Indianapolis' startup community, Marcadia Biotech co-founder Kent Hawryluk is backing a project management software firm.