Genetic testing could spur Erbitux drug sales
The drugmakers are counting on screening for the so-called K-ras gene to spur use of Erbitux in metastatic colorectal cancer.
The drugmakers are counting on screening for the so-called K-ras gene to spur use of Erbitux in metastatic colorectal cancer.
Eli Lilly and Co. is a likely suitor for two cancer drug developers, according to unnamed sources interviewed
by The Financial Times. The Indianapolis-based drugmaker has made cancer its most intense area of new drug investment—as
have many of its peers. The company was outbid last year for Gloucester Pharmaceuticals, which was scooped up by New Jersey-based
Celgene Corp. Now, industry insiders believe Lilly will bid for Gloucester’s competitor in the race to develop the next
lung cancer drug, Colorado-based Allos Therapeutics Inc. Also, Lilly is a likely bidder for Washington-based Seattle Genetics
Inc., which is developing drugs to treat leukemia and Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
With funding still spotty for medical and biotech startups, a huge amount of attention is focusing on Qualified Therapeutic
Discovery Project Credits, which will award $1 billion in tax breaks to small companies developing products that help diagnose,
treat or prevent illnesses. Each business can receive a credit for as much of half its investment into qualified research
and testing of its products, according to a description of the act by Bingham McHale, an Indianapolis law
firm hoping to win clients by helping them apply. The credit will be paid in cash if a company has little to no tax liability.
Only companies that have 250 or fewer employees (of any type) can receive the credits.
Roche Diagnostics won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its test of antibodies that
build up to fight the hepatitis C virus in human fluids. The Elecsys Anti-HCV can be performed on certain models of Roche
Diagnostics’ Cobas and Modular Analytics machines. In April, Roche received FDA clearance for another immunoassay in
its infectious-disease portfolio, Rubella IgM. Roche Diagnostics operates its North American business out of Indianapolis.
Michiana Health Information Network has added Elkhart General Healthcare System to its health information
exchange service. Doctors in Elkhart can now receive electronic copies of medical records and laboratory results from Elkhart
General Hospital quickly and without the privacy issues of e-mail. Once fully implemented, all Elkhart physicians with electronic
health records will have the ability to instantly receive hospital reports, laboratory results and radiology reports directly
into their EHR systems. Michiana Health Information Network, established in 1999, includes more than 3,200 community health
care professionals in northern Indiana and southwest Michigan.
In its latest response to withering criticism of its breast-cancer policies, WellPoint Inc. started Tuesday
to pay for all breast cancer patients to stay two days in a hospital after mastectomy surgery. Some states already require
insurers to cover hospital stays of 48 hours if the patient and her doctor wanted that much time for recovery after mastectomy
surgery. But Indiana requires payment only for a 24-hour stay. Now, WellPoint will make the 48-hour policy standard for its
customers in any state. Indianapolis-based WellPoint has been under fire since a Reuters article in April said the company
uses a computer algorithm to target breast cancer patients for cancellation of their policies. WellPoint has repeatedly called
the article’s claims “inaccurate and grossly misleading.” But the article provided the basis for sharp criticism
of WellPoint from President Obama, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and dozens of members of Congress.
A couple of Hoosier entrepreneurs think they can take their career information web site national.
Eli Lilly and Co. and Merck KGaA drug failed to slow tumors in a study designed to expand the medicine’s use to patients whose
disease is in an earlier stage.
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.
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.
Partners Cate McLaughlin and Kyle Falk started the website askcateandkyle.com last July to help recent graduates deal with
the trials and tribulations of life
after college. Their potential audience is huge.
Roche Holding AG’s decision to postpone its experimental diabetes drug is helping boost shares in Amylin Pharmaceuticals
Inc. and drug partner Eli Lilly and Co.
Roche Diagnostics, which runs its U.S. operations out of Indianapolis, has partnered with IBM to develop a DNA sequencer much faster and cheaper than current technology. Roche and IBM ultimately want to provide a test that performs whole genome sequencing for $100 to $1,000 per test. Such wide access could make genetic sequencing as standard as biopsies, for example, and then allow medical professionals to “personalize” medical treatment based on a person’s genes. As part of the agreement, Roche will fund continued development of the technology at IBM and provide additional resources and expertise through collaboration with Roche’s sequencing subsidiary, Maryland-based 454 Life Sciences. Roche will develop and market all products based on the technology.
Indianapolis-based insurer WellPoint Inc. said its California subsidiary will dial down rate hikes that drew national outrage earlier this year and helped spark a final push for health care reform, according to the Associated Press. WellPoint now plans to raise rates by 14 percent for California individual policyholders. It will cap rate hikes at 20 percent, even though the company said it would lose $100 million on the plans this year. In April WellPoint withdrew increases that averaged 25 percent—and topped out at 39 percent—after consumers and President Barack Obama expressed outrage. WellPoint defended the hikes by saying rising medical costs and healthy people dropping coverage during the recession were forcing it to raise rates. But an outside actuary also found math errors, which prompted last week’s reduction.
About $72 million in construction bids have been awarded so far for the new Wishard Hospital. The contracts total about 14 percent of the entire construction package for the $754 million project, said Matt Gutwein, president and CEO of Health & Hospital Corp. of Marion County, which owns the hospital. He said the new hospital is on schedule and slightly below budget. The 1.2-million-square-foot hospital will be built on 37 acres at the west end of the IUPUI campus. Bids that have been awarded include demolition work, as well as work on a parking garage, the hospital’s foundation and utilities. Wishard hopes to award all contracts by January.
Eli Lilly and Co. is launching a diagnostics division to produce tests that can winnow out the patients most likely to benefit
from a Lilly drug.
Two Indianapolis giants—Eli Lilly and Co. and Roche Diagnostics—are working hard to pair up drugs and diagnostic
tests to gin up more sales.
With Eli Lilly, Roche Diagnostics and other large life sciences companies shedding jobs, Indiana needs small
life sciences startups to fill the void. To help such companies, two former Lilly employees are starting an institutional
review board that will help small companies launch clinical trials of their innovative technologies. Pearl IRB,
based in Indianapolis, is run by Lilly alumnae Diana Caldwell and Gretchen Miller Bowker. It is, according to the Indiana
Health Industry Forum, the first commercial institutional review board in the state. That’s significant because such
boards must approve clinical trials before such research on humans can begin. Typically, universities and large hospitals
have institutional review boards, but they are not normally available for researchers not affiliated in some way with those
institutions.
Iraq war veteran Nate Richardson is now using his battlefield experience to launch his own business. His company, Anderson-based
Coeus Technology, developed an antimicrobial liquid it says can be added to military uniforms and equipment
to make them resistant to germs for longer periods of time than current products. The U.S. Army Material Command is currently
testing Coeus’ MonoFoil Technology for its use. But Coeus is also pursuing sales of MonoFoil to civilian users, such
as hospitals and schools. Coeus opened a year ago in Anderson’s Flagship Enterprise Center. It plans to add packing,
filling and research facilities in the next two years, creating 30 to 50 jobs by 2012.
A team of researchers at Purdue University say they’ve found a new marker for prostate cancer that
could replace the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) that is now the leading indicator for the disease. Purdue chemist Graham
Cooks and Purdue oncologist Timothy Ratliff led the team, which found that the compound cholesterol sulfate occurs in prostate
cancer tumors but not in healthy prostate tissue. That stark difference could prove better than PSA, which sometimes appears
at elevated levels in prostates that are inflamed or enlarged, but not cancerous.
The California-based Howard Hughes Medical Institute has awarded $364,000 to more than double Indiana University’s
repository of fruit flies, which have served as the basis of most genetic research for the past century. The Bloomington Drosophila
Stock Center houses 30,000 fruit fly strains and helps develop scientific tools that are used to design new fly strains. The
new grant will allow the stock center to expand to as many as 70,000 fruit fly variants. When the stock center moved from
the California Institute of Technology to Indiana University 25 year ago, it was home to only 1,675 strains.
Indianapolis-based Dow AgroSciences posted a profit of $196 million, up from $140 million in the same quarter
last year, according to Bloomberg News. Second-quarter revenue increased 4 percent, to $1.3 billion, for the unit of Michigan-based
Dow Chemical Co. Company officials credited increased sales for Dow AgroSciences’ herbicides, including some new products,
in spite of weather-related delays.
Roche Diagnostics, a Swiss company that keeps its U.S. headquarters in Indianapolis, has been sued for marking its Accu-Chek
blood glucose monitors and accessories with patents that are expired. Illinois resident David O’Neill has sued on behalf
of the U.S. government to recover damages of $500 per infraction.
Leaders tackle issues ranging from research to cold storage to the future of Eli Lilly and Co.
The Pirates, the Major League parent club of the Indianapolis Indians, made nearly $29.4 million in 2007 and 2008, according
to team financial documents, years that were part of a streak of futility that has now reached 18 straight losing seasons.
Roche Diagnostics agreed to pay $100 million to acquire California-based BioImagene Inc., a maker of tissue-based
cancer diagnostic equipment, according to Reuters. Such diagnostic tools are becoming increasingly important to identify the
small groups of patients who are the targets of new cancer drugs aimed at specific genetic profiles. Switzerland-based Roche
also has a pharmaceutical business and is the world’s largest maker of cancer drugs. The company’s U.S. diagnostic
business is headquartered in Indianapolis, though its tissue diagnostics is concentrated in Arizona.
Drug developer Endocyte Inc. has raised more than $100 million in private investment and grant funding,
so it’s now going to test the public markets. The company, headquartered at Purdue University Park in West Lafayette,
filed last week for an initial public offering. Endocyte has a pipeline of drugs in development for the treatment of various
cancers and inflammatory diseases, including six drugs in clinical trials. Endocyte’s IPO is the third announced so
far this year in Indiana. Fort Wayne-based Vera Bradley Inc., a handbag maker, filed plans last month to raise $175 million.
Evansville-based UCI International, a supplier of replacement parts for the light- and heavy-duty vehicle aftermarket, said
in July it plans to raise $200 million. Nationally, the IPO market looks to be improving. So far this year 170 have been filed,
topping the 119 filed in 2009 and the 153 in 2008.
Indiana is getting a $1 million federal grant to improve monitoring of health insurance premiums and develop a website to
help consumers, according to the Associated Press. The grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is
part of the federal health reform bill. The Indiana Department of Insurance will use the money to hire actuaries to help it
review proposed premium increases. It also will develop a website on which consumers can review rate filings and post comments.
Filings currently are only available in paper form upon request.
Through Oct. 31
Indiana State Museum
A “coral” reef—consisting of the work of volunteer crocheters from around the state—is displayed through the end of October. But don’t expect it to look exactly the same each time you stop in. Visitors can bring their own pieces—or pick up a handy beginners kit at the Museum—to add to the work, which is an offshore offshoot of “Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef Project” created for the Institute for Figuring in Los Angeles. Details here.
Methodist Hospital is spending $27 million to renovate its neurosurgery suites as the centerpiece of a big expansion its owner, Clarian Health, hopes will create nearly 1,200 jobs over the next decade and vault Methodist into the top 10 neurosurgery sites in the nation.
Dorothy Henckel, president of the Indianapolis International Film Festival, has accepted a job as director of acquisitions for The Documentary Channel.
A drug-coated stent from Indiana-based Cook Medical was more effective than standard therapy for patients with blockages in an upper-leg artery, a study found.