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IU life sciences startup attracts former Lilly exec: INphoton attempts to commercialize high-tech cellular imaging techniques

It doesn’t have a headquarters or any full-time employees yet. But local life sciences startup INphoton LLC has attracted something equally important: an experienced manager. This month, INphoton hired Steven Plump, Eli Lilly and Co.’s former chief marketing officer, as its CEO. Plump, who retired from Lilly in 2006 after a 30-year career there, hopes to commercialize the high-tech research imaging techniques that INphoton’s founders discovered in Indiana University laboratories. In the process, INphoton could cut pharmaceutical companies’ cost of…

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Agriculture goes urban: New academy plans to show city students that there’s more to horticulture than farming

Indiana’s stature as one of the nation’s top producers of corn and soybeans is as enduring as the fertile farmland in which the crops are grown. But a new initiative plans to introduce urban high school students in Indianapolis to a bushel of opportunities within the agriculture industry that extends well beyond farming. The Hoosier Agribusiness and Science Academy is a partnership between state government and Ivy Tech Community College in which students from the Lawrence Early College High School…

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Orphan Lilly antibiotic spurs $86.3 million IPO plan: Targanta Therapeutics aims to commercialize drug

A biotech company that’s attempting to commercialize an antibiotic developed by Eli Lilly and Co. has filed for an $86.3 million initial public offering. Targanta Therapeutics Corp. two years ago bought the rights to Lilly’s skin infection treatment, oritavancin. The company briefly had its headquarters in Indianapolis before moving it to Cambridge, Mass., last year. Lilly will see a big payoff if Targanta succeeds. The company’s IPO filing says it must pay the Indianapolis pharma giant $10 million when oritavancin…

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CHRIS KATTERJOHN Commentary: ‘Rip’ is just right for CICP

It’s been 15 months since Central Indiana Corporate Partnership CEO Mark Miles wrote in these pages that he felt like Rip Van Winkle when he returned to the city after being away for 15 years. Miles has done anything but sleep since he got back. Neither has the CICP board of directors. That group should be congratulated for making an outstanding choice of a new leader and for taking bold steps forward. This seems to have been a perfect match…

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Techpoint honors Indiana companies, educators: Judges narrow 80 nominees to 13 Mira winners

This year’s recipients of Techpoint’s Mira awards include some of the area’s best-known technology startups as well as lower-profile firms that have racked up big achievements. On May 18, the technology trade group was scheduled to acknowledge the accomplishments of Hoosier entrepreneurs in information technology, life sciences, advanced manufacturing and education with its eighth annual gala at the Indiana Roof Ballroom downtown. “It’s always good to recognize companies and give them a pat on the back, put them on the…

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Back from key conference, leaders focus on follow-up: Life science delegation faced big task: standing out among 20,000 attendees

The Indiana Economic Development Corp. spent the last six months preparing for the May 6-9 Biotechnology Industry Organization convention, the life sciences industry’s biggest annual event. Now that it’s finished, the hard part begins. “You build the relationship and you get the contacts,” said Indiana Secretary of Commerce Nathan Feltman. “But then you’ve got to aggressively follow up to get them here in Indiana.” More than 20,000 of the life sciences sector’s movers and shakers converged in Boston for the…

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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Gambling quenched lawmakers’ appetite for new revenue

The 2007 session of the Indiana General Assembly is now history. Whatever else might have been involved in shaping its outcome, nothing was so determinative as the revelation in the closing days that property taxes-driven by the first application of trending, rising property values in general, the elimination of the inventory tax, and some old-fashioned political legerdemain on the part of some assessors in different regions of the state-were expected to rise an average of 24 percent for taxes payable…

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Pension changes fill state’s VC coffer: Indiana Investment Fund has $155 million to pour into Hoosier companies

The diversification of the state’s two enormous public pension funds into private equity is transforming Indiana’s venture capital sector. And their $155 million Indiana Investment Fund is the largest factor in the equation. If it’s successful, the Indiana Public Employees’ Retirement Fund and the Indiana State Teachers’ Retirement Fund will save Hoosiers untold millions of dollars and help launch a host of new high-tech companies. If it’s not, taxpayers will one day have to foot the bill. Indiana State Budget…

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Embarking on a new Venture: New leader planning progressive changes at center, not a total revamping

The new leader of the Indiana Venture Center is beginning to put his stamp on the not-for-profit that mentors promising startups. James Eifert, 64, is the former president of Terre Haute-based Rose-Hulman Ventures who took charge of the center in December following the July resignation of Steve Beck. Beck left to become co-managing director of IVC Equity Partners, a new local seed-capital fund. Chief items on Eifert’s to-do list are broadening the donor base, revamping the Venture Center’s proprietary network…

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VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Communications as usual just won’t cut it anymore

In 1999, when the World Wide Web was in its infancy, Rick Levine and others penned and posted “The Cluetrain Manifesto: The end of business as usual” (www.cluetrain.com). In this Web-focused document, their opening salvo at business as usual-and their wake-up call for American business- went thusly: “A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter-and getting smarter…

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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: Desperate for cash, lawmakers embrace gambling

We recently told you how revenue growth was lagging the December fiscal forecast. One prominent Republican senator tells his constituents that his colleagues are now planning for a growth rate in this fiscal year of only 2.5 percent, not the 4.2 percent to 4.5 percent they had planned on at the beginning of the session. While lawmakers will not have a new fiscal forecast for the biennium until the middle of April, they are clearly girding for a new fiscal…

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MICKEY MAURER Commentary: The power of a single ‘thank you’

One of the most enjoyable aspects of my job as president of the Indiana Economic Development Corp. and secretary of commerce was the opportunity to represent our governor and the state of Indiana on goodnews occasions. On April 26, 2005, I bestowed official state certification on Intech Park, a business incubator that had qualified under the Indiana Certified Technology Park Program. Certified tech parks enjoy the advantage of being allowed to capture and invest in the development of their park…

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Oxford BioSignals poised to add up to 120 jobs: Indiana’s life sciences market, $2.7 million in incentives attract medical startup

How does aviation technology conceived at Oxford University and developed with the help of Rolls-Royce end up being tested at Methodist Hospital and commercialized in Carmel? Oxford BioSignals Medical CEO Frank Cheng knows the answer. Even better, he can explain why his startup is poised to add 120 jobs over the next few years. “At this point, I don’t see anything we can’t do right here in Indiana,” he said. Formed in 2000, Oxford BioSignals began its life when research…

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NOTIONS: Must we pay the painful price of Hoosier incivility?

One of the most effective advertisements I ever created never had to be published. The mere fear it instilled via private showings to Connecticut state legislators was enough to undo the havoc they were threatening to wreak. At the time, lawmakers were contemplating what they called a “business services tax,” a tax that would be imposed on the services one division of a corporation provided to another, so long as both operated within the state. For example, if an Aetna…

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Tax break would reward patent producers: Indiana legislators view bill as way to attract young, innovative high-tech companies and solo entrepreneurs

A bill weaving its way through the Indiana General Assembly could give the state an edge in attracting and growing the type of high-tech ventures several states covet. Indiana House Bill 1461, introduced by Rep. Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, advanced to the Senate after sailing through the House of Representatives on Feb. 26 by a vote of 95-3. The legislation that was referred to the Senate’s Economic Development and Technology Committee would provide a tax incentive that would shield income from…

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EYE ON THE PIE: Unsolicited advice for IU’s next president

Congratulations, Dr. McRobbie, on being selected as Indiana University’s next president. I’ve read that you are committed to helping IU become more active in the state’s economic development. I’ve heard that from every IU president since I arrived in 1970. To be successful, it will take major changes. It is not sufficient to appoint a committee of administrators who then request each part of the university to submit a list of its “economic development activities” for ultimate inclusion in a…

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Software firm finally making name for itself: Fusion quietly becomes giant in local tech industry

Doug Brown might not know how to name a company, but he sure knows how to grow one. CEO Brown, 46, co-founded Fusion Alliance Inc. in 1994 along with Tim Shaw, who is no longer active in the firm. The company has since blossomed into the Indianapolis-area’s’s largest software developer, with 196 staff and contract software engineers and programmers. Much of the growth coincides with the decision in 2000 to rechristen the northwest-side company from its original and less glamorous…

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STATEHOUSE DISPATCH: So far, session is all about unearthing new revenue

Sure, it’s a budget session, and one would expect fiscal talk to dominate the discussion. But the one thing that has surprised us so far this year-and we are literally at the midpoint-is just how much the dollar debate has consumed this Legislature. Through the first few weeks of the session, the big sport was picking the over/under on when the relationship between Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) and House Speaker Pat Bauer (DSouth Bend)-and thus between Republicans and Democrats as…

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Technology-friendly legislation quietly advances: Bills could spur patent commercialization and more

A handful of bills pending in the General Assembly could have a major impact on Indiana’s high-tech sector. Legislation under consideration could stimulate increased commercialization of patented Indiana technology, channel more money toward development of alternative fuels, require regular review of Indiana’s certified technology parks, and more. Tech leaders are optimistic about the chances their agenda will be approved. “It’s the reason we married up with CICP,” said Ron Brumbarger, chairman of TechPoint, a trade association for Indiana high-tech companies….

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Forensic engineering firm seeks defense work: New initiative hopes to help other local firms follow in Wolf Technical’s footsteps

After 30 years in the forensic-engineering business, Wolf Technical Services Inc. has analyzed everything from deadly car crashes to patent infringement. Now, Indianapolis-based Wolf is hoping to diversify into a new area: federal defense contracting. It’s a field local corporate leaders hope Indiana will tap much more frequently in the years to come. “We don’t quite know at the moment where this could lead,” said Wolf Director of Client Relations Joseph Ward. “And that’s the fun part.” The 30-employee Wolf’s…

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