Struggling Lilly turns to antidepressant Cymbalta for lift
Cymbalta racked up $3.5 billion in sales last year, and some analysts say it may approach $5 billion before generic competition arrives in 2013.
Health Care & Insurance
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Baldwin & Lyons reports higher revenue, lower profit
Indianapolis-based insurer of car and truck fleets posts quarterly profit slightly lower than a year ago. Revenue, however, rose to $67.7 million, up from $60.8 million in 2009.
Lilly, Bristol-Myers halt enrollment in lung-cancer trial
Eli Lilly and Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. stopped enrolling new patients in a clinical trial of an experimental lung cancer drug over concerns about patients developing blood clots.
Potential competitor to Lilly drug shows promise in study
Sanofi-Aventis’s experimental diabetes drug lixisenatide, given to volunteer patients once a day, was at least as effective as Eli Lilly and Co. and Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s twice-daily medicine Byetta, a study found.
Marcadia may fetch up to $537 million in sale
The December sale of Carmel-based Marcadia Biotech to Roche garnered at least $287 million—and as much as $537 million—for the company’s owners and could lead the Marcadia management team to launch a firm using one of Marcadia’s experimental diabetes medicines.
Judge’s ruling raises uncertainty for health care execs
After a federal judge in Florida struck down the entire health reform law, investors shrugged. But the uncertainty for executives in health care companies increased.
House passes measure fixing unemployment fund
The Indiana House approved a bill Monday to help fix the state's bankrupt unemployment insurance fund by reducing jobless benefits for some people and softening tax increases on businesses.
Florida judge strikes down health care overhaul
A federal judge ruled Monday that the Obama administration's health care overhaul is unconstitutional, siding with 26 states, including Indiana, that sued to block it.
Execs from WellPoint, peers meet to hone health-law lobby
Top executives from WellPoint Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. are meeting almost monthly with their counterparts from Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp. and Humana Inc. in an informal lobbying alliance aimed at blunting parts of the health-care law, say sources with knowledge of the sessions.
Loopholes give smoking ban bill a better chance
A proposed statewide smoking ban now has so many exemptions that health advocates say it nearly loses its meaning.
King Systems’ two top execs exit company
An executive at the Noblesville firm’s parent company said the departures of CEO Don Dumoulin and Chief Financial Officer Yun Kim were the result of a “mutual agreement.” A search is under way for replacements to lead one of the area’s largest medical device manufacturers.
Mini Thin marketer slapped with suit
A Carmel man whose Mini Thin dietary supplement was sold through convenience stores nationwide before the government banned its active ingredient now faces allegations of bankruptcy fraud.
Indiana Health Information Exchange hires new CEO
Harold Apple takes over for J. Marc Overhage, who will remain with the organization as its chief strategic officer and national policy adviser. IHIE is one of four operational exchanges in Indiana that allows for the sharing of medical records electronically.
Lilly’s fourth-quarter profit surges, topping analysts’ predictions
The Indianapolis-based drugmaker earned $1.2 billion in the quarter, compared with $915 million in the same period a year ago. Profit per share beat Wall Street forecasts by a penny.
WellPoint profit better than analyst estimates
Excluding special charges, WellPoint’s profit fell 2 percent to $524.7 million in the fourth quarter from $536 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. But earnings per share improved thanks to stock buybacks.
Lilly product gets boost; Wall Street yawns
Eli Lilly and Co. probably will get approval for its newly acquired imaging agent used to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, but so far analysts are unimpressed.
Q&A
Chris Sears is a health care and employee-benefits attorney at Ice Miller LLP in Indianapolis. He spoke about how employers are sizing up health insurance reforms that hit in 2014, which would set up government-subsidized insurance as a new option for workers but also would penalize most employers if they stop sponsoring employee health benefits.
Head of Lilly’s oncology unit resigning
John H. Johnson has been hired as CEO by East Brunswick, N.J.-based biotechnology company Savient Pharmaceuticals Inc.
State lawmakers to take on unemployment insurance
Businesses with a history of laying off employees would pay more in unemployment insurance costs, and workers in industries where layoffs occur regularly would receive lower benefits under a bill Indiana lawmakers are preparing to take up.
Vanderbilt rejected by high court on Cialis patents
Supreme Court justices on Monday left intact a ruling throwing out a lawsuit pressed by the Nashville, Tenn., university against Eli Lilly’s Icos subsidiary.