FDA names Indiana farm tied to salmonella in melons
The Food and Drug Administration has identified a southern Indiana farm that produced cantaloupes linked to a deadly salmonella outbreak and says the operation has recalled its melons.
Health Care & Life Sciences
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Health safety advocates want melon farm identified
Food safety advocates called on federal officials to release the name of an Indiana farm that recalled its cantaloupes amid a salmonella outbreak.
Pence asks Daniels to deny state-run exchange
Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Pence is asking Gov. Mitch Daniels to reject a state-run health insurance exchange called for by the federal health care law.
Humane Society clinic to open with even bigger goal in mind
The Humane Society of Indianapolis is ready to open its new Animal Welfare Center in Haughville, featuring a low-cost vaccination clinic. The group wants to raise $750,000 to add a low-cost spay-and-neuter clinic to the center.
GOP govs: Not enough Medicaid ‘flexibility’
The Obama administration is giving states like Indiana a little flexibility in how to expand their Medicaid programs—but nothing like what state officials hoped for after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the law in late June.
WellPoint dragged into Goldman Sachs suit
WellPoint Inc.’s $4.9 billion offer for Virginia-based Amerigroup Inc. apparently wasn’t the only—or even the most lucrative—offer for the Medicaid managed care company. But it was the deal surest to come to fruition before a key deadline for a big payout for Goldman Sachs & Co., according to a shareholder lawsuit filed Aug. 16 against the Amerigroup board of directors.
WellPoint competitor Aetna to buy Coventry for $5.6B
Aetna joins rivals WellPoint Inc. and Cigna Corp. in making big acquisitions as the U.S. government expands medical coverage.
Life sciences firm Hologic closing 200-worker Zionsville facility
Massachusetts-based Hologic Inc., the company that bought Suros Surgical Systems Inc., will phase out its facility in Zionsville, bringing an end to 200 local jobs.
WellPoint least popular insurer in poll of hospital execs
WellPoint Inc., the health insurer that’s lost 19 percent of its market value over two months, is the least popular carrier among hospital executives who have to negotiate with them, an industry survey shows.
Q&A
Alph Bingham spent more than 28 years at Eli Lilly and Co. and from there co-founded InnoCentive Inc., a Massachusetts-based organization that organizes crowdsourcing to help companies solve internal challenges. The Carmel resident spoke about the challenges now facing pharmaceutical companies, which are buckling under ever-rising costs to develop drugs with lower rates of success and worsening prospects for reimbursement. Bingham’s solution is for pharma to embrace crowdsourcing and other “open innovation” concepts in order to spread the risk of R&D among more partners.
EMR causes hospital wait times to soar
Columbus Regional Hospital saw wait times double in its emergency room after it began using electronic records in late June, according to the Associated Press. Even now, wait times are longer than usual, even though they have lessened.
Survey: Reform threatens retail, hospitality
Nearly half of employers in the sectors expect the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act to boost their health plan costs more than 3 percent in 2014.
WellPoint board member says Braly still backed as CEO
A WellPoint Inc. director said there’s no move by the board to fire CEO Angela Braly for poor performance. Meanwhile, an expert predicted Braly will have at least until early 2013 to right the ship as the company awaits the close of the $4.9 billion Amerigroup acquisition.
WellPoint CEO faces ire of investors who say she must go
WellPoint Inc.’s Angela Braly is facing tough questions about her performance after the Indianapolis-based health insurer reported disappointing earnings last month and cut its 2012 forecast. Investors say Braly is the problem and some are calling for her ouster.
Alzheimer’s quest puts Lilly to test
Odds are long that Eli Lilly and Co.’s leading Alzheimer’s drug will show positive results when its Phase 3 trial results are released within a few weeks, but even the smallest improvement in the cognitive impairment of test patients would be a home run for Lilly.
Lilly to book $790M Amylin payment in third quarter
Eli Lilly and Co. will book about $790 million in pretax income in the third quarter thanks to an early payment from former drug development partner Amylin Pharmaceuticals.
Brater to retire as dean of IU medical school
Dr. Craig Brater, 66, has worked at the Indianapolis-based school for 26 years, including the past 12 as dean. The school is the second largest medical school in the nation and the only one in Indiana.
Lilly stock slips after competitors halt Alzheimer’s plans
Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Elan Corp. are ending most plans to develop an Alzheimer’s drug after a second trial failure. Eli Lilly is developing a similar treatment.
Governors aside, feds building health care exchanges
The feds may be gaining on GOP governors who've balked at carrying out a key part of the health care overhaul law. Opponents of the law say they won't set up new private health insurance exchanges. But increasingly it's looking like Washington will do it for them.
Despite funding dip, IU bets on brains
The city that brought the world Prozac and other neuroscience drugs is doubling down on brain research with a new $52 million research center near Methodist Hospital.