Minority-owned logistics firm s2f Worldwide, started a year ago with high-profile investors and tax incentives in tow, has been acquired by Brightpoint Inc. The deal closed about three weeks ago, said former s2f CEO Randall Lewis.
Eli Lilly and Co. said that next year, for the first time, it would hire an outside firm to search for state disciplinary actions against its hired speakers and advisers, after reporting by New York-based ProPublica found that Lilly was paying more than 100 physicians who had been under state sanctions. Indianapolis-based Lilly and British firm GlaxoSmithKline plc had the most state-sanctioned physicians among their speakers and advisers out of the seven pharmaceutical companies that ProPublica scrutinized. For example, Lilly used cardiologist Ali Sherzoy as a speaker, paying him more than $4,300 in the first two quarters of this year. But Sherzoy had his license suspended in New York and New Jersey early this year after he pleaded guilty to one count of criminal sexual contact in 2008. Sherzoy said the matter involved his family's nanny and not his practice. He said he pleaded guilty on his lawyer's advice to put the matter behind him.
A trade group of health insurers, which includes Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc., gave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce $86.2 million in August 2009 to wage a campaign against the health reform law being debated by Congress, according to Bloomberg News. The bill eventually was passed and became law in March 2010. The money came from America’s Health Insurance Plans and exceeded its entire budget for the previous year, according to Bloomberg. The $86.2 million paid for advertisements, polling and grass-roots events to drum up opposition to the bill. The Chamber said in a statement it used the funds to “advance a market-based health care system and advocate for fundamental reform that would improve access to quality care while lowering costs.” A WellPoint spokesman declined to comment to Bloomberg.
Teams of researchers at Indiana University and Purdue University both made striking medical breakthroughs recently. Purdue researchers found evidence that an environmental pollutant may play an important role in causing multiple sclerosis and that a hypertension drug might be used to treat the disease. They noticed that the toxin acrolein was elevated by about 60 percent in the spinal cord tissues of mice with a disease similar to multiple sclerosis. Acrolein is found in tobacco smoke and auto exhaust. Previous studies by this research team found that neuronal death caused by acrolein can be prevented by administering the hypertension drug hydralazine, also known as Apresoline. At the IU School of Medicine, researchers induced a complete remission of metastatic melanoma in mice when they introduced a potent anti-tumor gene into the stem cells in bone marrow that produce all blood and immune system cells. IU’s research has now led to a small clinical trial of 12 patients in late 2011.
L.H. Medical Corp. will add 65 jobs in Fort Wayne by 2013 as it expands its production of custom medical-device components for the orthopedic implant industry. The company will move to a new facility and begin hiring manufacturing workers and engineers early next year. Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered L.H. Medical up to $550,000 in performance-based tax credits and up to $60,000 in training grants. Also, Allen County officials will consider an additional property tax abatement.
Sisters of St. Francis Health Services Inc., which operates three hospitals in the Indianapolis area, has decided to change its name to Franciscan Alliance. The Mishawaka-based system, which has 13 hospitals in Indiana and Illinois, announced the decision of its board of directors Monday morning. The announcement comes after months of consumer research—and six months after rival system Clarian Health said it would change its name to Indiana University Health. Beginning in early 2011, all St. Francis hospitals will have the name Franciscan added to their logos, with the previous name of each hospital written below it.
L.H. Medical Corp. said it plans to create up to 65 jobs by 2013 and invest $5.4 million to more than triple the size of its manufacturing operations.
Multimatic Inc. plans to expand its northeast Indiana production operation, adding new assembly lines as it aims to create over 200 jobs by 2013—more than tripling employment there.
KAR Auction Services Inc. announced Monday night that it plans to expand its Carmel headquarters, creating up to 249 jobs by 2015.
Republicans who now control the Indiana House are poised to push reforms next year that would strengthen local governments’ ability to offer businesses tax abatements. But the changes might be met with caution in Marion County.
The city put up $25 million for the hotel, restaurant and condo development at the corner of Washington and Illinois streets, including $3.75 million in exchange for the economic equivalent of an 8-percent stake.
Nexus Valve Inc. plans to invest $2.3 million to expand its headquarters and distribution operations, adding up to 21 jobs by 2015.
With new control of the Indiana House, Republican lawmakers plan to pursue an agenda focused on encouraging the private sector to create jobs and passing a budget without tax increases.
The Metropolitan Development Commission is expected Wednesday afternoon to approve Heritage-Crystal Clean Inc.’s plan to build its first used oil re-refinery, on West 10th Street. The project is estimated to cost $40 million and should create 55 jobs by 2013.
Five Indiana doctors made the list of drug-company favorites in a recent report by New York-based ProPublica. Carmel psychiatrist Chris Bojrab pulled in nearly $160,000, with the lion’s share coming from Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. and its antidepressant Cymbalta. Lafayette allergist Ketan Sheth was a close second, earning $159,225 from United Kingdom-based GlaxoSmithKline plc. Other doctors on ProPublica’s list: Indianapolis hematologist Maureen A. Cooper, who made $140,000, mostly from Cephalon; Terre Haute endocrinologist Isaiah Pittman, $126,000 mostly from Lilly; and Zionsville family physician Daniel Lynn Shull took home $102,000, nearly all of it from Lilly. After Lilly started disclosing its payments to doctors last year, Bojrab defended the pay for speaking on behalf of drug companies as well-earned. “We’re certainly well-compensated for what we do,” he said, adding that the pay is about 20-percent higher than what he would earn seeing patients. But it also requires a fair bit of work, especially arranging travel details. “It’s not uncommon for me to come home and spend three or four hours a night, just to work out the travel details,” he said. “And it’s not like the work that you had to do goes away.”
St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers has acquired the Immediate Care Centers' four Indianapolis-area locations: 1001 N. Madison Ave., 650 N. Girls School Road, 860 E. 86th St. and 992 N. Mitthoeffer Road. The centers were launched in 1981 by Bloomington-based Unity Physician Group. About 100,000 patients visit the centers each year. St. Francis, whose parent organization is based in Mishawaka, is the fourth-largest hospital system in the Indianapolis area.
A new professional service center on the northwest side of Indianapolis will employ 500 people to support the 70 hospitals operated by St. Louis-based Ascension Health. The Catholic not-for-profit organization is the parent of Indianapolis-based hospital system St. Vincent Health, which operates 19 hospitals around Indiana, including its flaghship campus on West 86th Street. St. Vincent employs more than 13,000 Hoosiers. The $10.9 million center is expected to open next summer and ramp up to peak employment by 2013. To lure the investment, the Indiana Economic Development Corp. offered Ascension up to $5 million in performance-based tax credits and up to $90,000 in training grants based on the company's job-creation plans. Develop Indy and the city of Indianapolis offered Ascension Health infrastructure support and a training grant worth up to $300,000. Develop Indy also will support a property-tax-abatement request before the Metropolitan Development Commission.
Orthopedic implant maker Zimmer Holdings Inc. saw its third-quarter profit climb 27 percent on lower operating expenses. The results beat Wall Street estimates, but Zimmer cut its estimate for revenue growth. The Warsaw-based company reported net income of $191.1 million, or 96 cents per share, up from $149.9 million, or 70 cents per share, a year ago. Sales fell 1 percent to $965 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected, on average, earnings of 95 cents per share on $994.7 million in revenue. Zimmer narrowed its full-year profit forecast to a range of $4.24 to $4.29 per share. The company had previously set full-year expectations for profit between $4.15 and $4.35 per share. It also trimmed its estimate of revenue growth on a constant currency basis for the year to 2 percent versus an earlier projection of 3-percent to 5-percent growth.
Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences improved revenue during the third quarter, thanks to a 26-percent increase in volume, but it still recorded a loss for the period. The unit of Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co. on Thursday reported revenue of $948 million, up 19 percent from the same period last year, despite lower prices. Quarterly earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, however, were a loss of $12 million—compared with a profit of $5 million a year ago. Dow Agro’s selling, general and administrative expenses increased 9 percent during the quarter because of new product launches and commercial activities related to recent seed acquisitions, the company said. Its research and development costs were up 14 percent.
Fort Recovery Industries Inc., an Ohio-based aluminum and zinc die cast hardware manufacturer, said it plans to create the jobs by locating a manufacturing plant in the northeastern Indiana city.
Alabama-based Progress Rail Services, a subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., said it plans to invest about $50 million to open the first locomotive manufacturing and assembly plant in the United States in many years.
St. Louis-based Ascension Health announced Friday morning that it would open a professional service center in Indianapolis, creating up to 500 jobs by 2013.
St. Louis-based Ascension Health announced Friday morning that it would open a professional service center in Indianapolis, creating up to 500 jobs by 2013.
J.C. Hart Co. spent more than a year securing a $5 million bank loan to expand an existing project; Buckingham Cos. turned to the city to finance its ambitious project just north of the Eli Lilly and Co. campus.
Delphi Electronics & Safety is moving ahead with a $28 million investment in its Kokomo operations, city officials said this week.
A new product roll-out and increasing demand for client services will drive ExactTarget's growth over the next five years, CEO Scott Dorsey said Tuesday after his firm announced that it would invest $45M and add 500 employees through 2015.
Omnicity Corp. is named in three lawsuits brought by owners of companies the firm bought who say they’ve not been paid the entire purchase price. All told, they claim they’re owed more than $1.2 million.
Conforce International Inc., a manufacturer of composite flooring systems for the transportation industry, plans to invest more than $13.8 million to purchase and equip a plant in Peru, which would be the company’s first location in the United States.
