WellPoint profit falls but exceeds Wall Street expectations
Indianapolis-based WellPoint earned $702 million in the latest quarter after earning $722 million a year ago. It also raised its full-year profit forecast.
Health Care & Life Sciences
Articles
Attention race fans: Hot dogs may be hazardous to your health
A billboard near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway features an image of hot dogs poking out of a cigarette pack adorned with a skull and crossbones. A message warns viewers that "hot dogs can wreck your health."
Obesity, tobacco use among targets of state’s health priorities
Indiana health officials are targeting infant mortality, obesity, tobacco use and other health priorities in a new five-year plan aimed at improving the health of Hoosiers.
Despite sales spike, Effient has middling prospects
Remember Effient? The blood thinner that was once Eli Lilly and Co.’s greatest post-Zyprexa hope and then, after a slow launch, was dismissed as an abject failure? Well, it’s turning out to defy both predictions.
WellPoint insures two-thirds of Hoosier workers
Indianapolis-based WellPoint claimed 63 percent of all employees covered by small-group employers and 66 percent of the workers at large-group employers, according to Seattle-based actuarial firm Milliman Inc.
IU Health name change means business for tech firms
Clarian Health’s recent rebranding to Indiana University Health has been good business for at least three companies in Indianapolis’ so-called measured-marketing sector. Such firms help a company overhaul its website and make changes to the “tweetosphere” and other social media channels.
Lilly stock rises after drugmaker reports higher sales
Investors responded favorably Thursday to Eli Lilly and Co.’s surprisingly strong second-quarter revenue, even though its profit fell due to rapid spending on marketing and research.
Pfizer won’t break up animal unit for potential Lilly bid
Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest drugmaker, said it isn’t interested in breaking up its animal health unit after Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. expressed interest in buying some of its products.
UPDATE: Medco acquisition could lead to local consolidation
It’s not yet clear how Express Scripts Inc.’s $29.1 billion acquisition of rival Medco Health Solutions will affect the companies’ central Indiana operations—or their 800-plus employees at two facilities here.
Express Scripts to buy Medco for $29.1B in cash, stock
Express Scripts Inc. agreed to buy Medco Health Solutions Inc. for $29.1 billion to become the largest pharmacy-benefits manager in the United States. Both have central Indiana operations.
Lilly profit falls, but forecast rises after second quarter
Second-quarter profit fell at Eli Lilly and Co., but the Indianapolis drugmaker beat the estimates of Wall Street analysts by a penny per share and raised its full-year profit forecast by as much as 10 cents per share.
Tech district could boost Indianapolis’ convention business
The Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association plans to attract more life sciences conferences.
Primary care gets a new approach: prevention
A budding model for primary care that encourages the family doctor to act as a health coach who focuses as much on preventing illness as on treating it has shown promising results and saved insurers millions of dollars.
Birth control coverage required in U.S. health plan
Health insurers led by WellPoint Inc. would be required to cover birth control pills and devices at no cost to patients under the recommendation of a top U.S. scientific advisory board.
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Lilly: Alzheimer’s patients on failed drug didn’t improve
Eli Lilly and Co. said patients with Alzheimer’s disease whose conditions worsened upon taking the experimental drug semagacestat didn’t improve after dosing was halted.
Court gives preliminary OK to WellPoint settlement
A California court has granted preliminary approval to a lawsuit settlement over an online security breach of health insurer WellPoint Inc.'s records.
Not-for-profits vying with WellPoint may get $3.8B in loans
Not-for-profits that compete with insurers such as WellPoint Inc. are eligible for $3.8 billion in U.S. financing under the health law, and the government expects more than a third of the loans not to be repaid.
FDA says potential diabetes drug may cause cancer
Dapagliflozin would be the first in a new class of diabetes treatments called SGLT2-inhibitors that work by letting patients excrete excess blood sugar in their urine. Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. is among several companies pursuing similar drugs.
CBO: No great savings from health reform
Don’t expect the health reform law to tame health care costs. That’s the conclusion of the director of the Congressional Budget Office, who also suggested some of the simplest ways to moderate costs would be to roll back some of its key provisions.
Healthy Indiana Plan makes room for more childless adults
Indiana is opening the rolls of its Healthy Indiana Plan medical savings account to 8,000 childless adults on Aug. 1.