Franciscan Alliance plans 84 jobs at Greenwood billing center
The Mishawaka-based Franciscan Alliance plans to spend $8.4 million to open an administrative center in Greenwood, creating 84 jobs in the next four years.
Health Care & Life Sciences
Articles
Illinois House votes to lift smoking ban at casinos
Tom Swoik, executive director of Illinois Casino Gaming Association, said gambling revenue has dropped 32 percent since the state’s smoking ban was approved. He said the ban has cost state government about $800 million in taxes.
Q&A
Susan Rider is an employee-benefits account manager at Indianapolis-based Gregory & Appel Insurance. On July 1, she will become president of the Indiana State Association of Health Underwriters. She spoke about the first-year impact of the 2010 health reform law and further changes to come.
Zimmer goes on offensive against lawyers
The Warsaw-based maker of orthopedic implants has filed suit to stop a Detroit-area law firm from making allegedly false claims and using its trademarks on websites designed to attract plaintiffs to sue Zimmer over one of its knee-replacement implants called NexGen.
WellPoint gets vote of confidence
Health reform will make health insurance a less-profitable business, but WellPoint Inc. got a vote of confidence from bond analysts because health-reform rules have turned out milder than expected and WellPoint’s financial performance has been particularly strong as the economy recovers.
Bill Cook, medical device magnate and philanthropist, dies at 80
The founder of Bloomington-based life sciences giant Cook Group Inc. and the wealthiest man in Indiana leaves a legacy of dozens of historic structures saved from decay or demolition. He also was a major donor to Indiana University and its athletics department.
Maturing Chinese market gives WellPoint new prospects
Premiums for private health insurers in China are expected to rise to $90 billion by 2020 from $9 billion now, and WellPoint Inc. is angling for a big piece of that pie.
Demographic shift steers Lilly’s Asian operations
China remains a small market for Eli Lilly and Co. It generated $320 million in sales for the company in 2010, just 1.3 percent of its $23 billion in sales worldwide. But Lilly has big ambitions in China and is racing to capitalize on its rapid economic growth.
SPECIAL REPORT: Indiana companies charge into China
With economic growth in the United States sluggish, Indiana companies are joining the race to capitalize on the fast-growing Chinese economy—even as hundreds of millions of Chinese move into the middle class and adopt a Western-style thirst for goods and services.
IU Health cancels $73M project, acquires Gateway Plaza
Indiana University Health has canceled its plans for a $73 million administrative office building at 16th Street and Capitol Avenue and has instead purchased the Gateway Plaza tower at 10th and Illinois streets.
Hospitals’ finances improve somewhat in 2010
It was a good but not great year financially for three of the four largest hospital systems operating in the Indianapolis area last year—and hospital analysts are expecting several head winds to continue.
Health insurers diversify away from regulations
One year after President Obama signed the health reform overhaul, health insurers are buying less-regulated companies in a bid to offset the lower profits and growth they expect the law to cause.
Self-funded plans draw small-firm interest
In the face of new health reform restrictions, expect more small employers to opt for self-funded health benefits, concludes a report this week from Indianapolis-based United Benefit Advisors.
Drugmakers call off animal-health deal, possible asset sale
Drugmakers Merck & Co. and Sanofi-Aventis SA have abandoned plans to combine their animal-health businesses after wrestling with regulators for a year over potential divestitures.
Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. was among a list of possible suitors for about $1 billion in assets the two companies considered selling.
Marcadia Biotech principals ponder next course
Marcadia execs French, Hawryluk reflect on massive growth of Carmel firm after sale to Roche.
Healthy Indiana Plan expansion opposed by some
Indiana wants to use its public health savings account program for low-income adults to cover people who will become newly eligible for Medicaid under the federal health care law beginning in 2014.
Regulators delay approval of Lilly’s Alzheimer’s screen
The Food and Drug Administration said Lilly needs to create a training program to ensure brain scans are interpreted properly.
Research jobs could flow from Purdue quad
Purdue University officials and others connected with the life sciences in Indiana say the planned $164 million Life and Health Sciences Quadrangle at the West Lafayette campus will mean high-paying jobs, retention of highly skilled scientists, and researchers who might well have left the state for either coast.
PROXY CORNER: Eli Lilly and Co.
Eli Lilly and Co., Lilly Corporate Center, Indianapolis, 46285 (www.lilly.com) discovers, develops, manufactures and sells pharmaceutical products for humans and animals.
Trade agency to probe Lilly’s infringement claim
Eli Lilly and Co.’s patent-infringement claim over Hospira Inc.’s generic version of the cancer treatment Gemzar will be investigated by a U.S. trade agency with the power to block imports of the copycat drug.