Eli Lilly

Drug maker Eli Lilly said it has received a six-month extension of marketing exclusivity for its blockbuster antidepressant Prozac. An August court ruling shortened the patent protection over Prozac to 2001. The Indianapolis-based company had been expected to apply for the six-month extension, which is often granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on key drugs that could be tested on children for further use.

Two brothers from Cuba have been arrested in the $80-million heist of pharmaceutical drugs from a Connecticut warehouse, solving what was one of the largest -- and most daring -- such robberies in U.S. history, officials said Thursday. Some of the drugs believed stolen in the March 2010 robbery of the Enfield, Conn., building were recovered in a storage facility in Florida, officials said at a news conference from New Haven, Conn. At least 11 people were arrested Thursday in Florida, accused of possessing and selling stolen goods -- including some from the Connecticut warehouse.

Drug-development services company Covance Inc. will buy an Indiana research center from Eli Lilly & Co. and enter a 10-year service deal with the drug maker worth $1.6 billion. Princeton, N.J.-based Covance will pay $50 million for Lilly's 450-acre drug development campus in Greenfield, Ind. Lilly is headquartered in Indianapolis.

If you take prescription medications, thank a taxpayer. That’s the take-away from an article being published in Thursday’s edition of the New England Journal of Medicine that examined the role of “public-sector research institutions” – think universities, hospitals, nonprofits and federal labs like the National Institutes of Health – in drug development. Historically, government-funded scientists conducted basic research and private companies used that information to create pharmaceutical products.

John Lechleiter will become Eli Lilly & Co.'s chief executive, replacing Sidney Taurel, as the company faces the loss of $6.8 billion in sales to generic competition within six years. Lechleiter, 54, chief operating officer since October 2005, will become president and CEO on April 1. Taurel, 58, who has led Indianapolis-based Lilly since July 1998, will remain chairman until the end of 2008.

Eli Lilly & Co. and Scios Inc. said they will work together to develop drugs to prevent or slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. Eli Lilly will provide an undisclosed amount of research funding to Scios and will have the first opportunity to develop drug candidates to treat the crippling disease, which erodes memory and can affect walking, talking and other motor skills. Mountain View-based Scios may choose to develop other products from the collaboration, the companies said.

Drug makers Eli Lilly & Co. and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. settled claims that they knew or should have known that a Kansas City, Mo., pharmacist was diluting cancer drugs. The companies did not disclose the terms. A spokesman for Indianapolis-based Lilly would not say whether there was a financial component to the settlement, but he said the settlement would not have a material effect on the company.

Eli Lilly and Co. said it will acquire Devices for Vascular Intervention Inc. of Redwood City, Calif., in a multimillion-dollar deal. Lilly described DVI as the leading developer and manufacturer of catheter systems for the treatment of cardiovascular disease by removal of vascular plaque.

Eli Lilly & Co. has limited sales to Canadian pharmacies, joining other U.S. drug makers that are trying to prevent their medications from being reimported and sold to consumers in the United States. The Indianapolis-based drug maker said in a letter sent to 24 Canadian drug wholesalers that it would limit sales of its drugs to amounts that Lilly estimates are sufficient to supply the Canadian market only.

Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co. said it won an early round in its legal battle to keep Barr Laboratories Inc. from selling a generic version of its top-selling drug, the antidepressant Prozac, causing Lilly stock to rise. Lilly sought an injunction against Pomona, N.Y.-based Barr after Barr filed an application with federal regulators to sell a generic version of Prozac. A U.S.

In what officials described Tuesday as a "sophisticated, well-planned" heist, thieves scaled the walls of an Eli Lilly warehouse, cut a hole in the roof, slid down ropes and loaded dozens of pallets holding $75 million worth of prescription drugs onto at least one truck. The thieves also disabled the alarm system at the 70,000-square-foot warehouse, one of three distribution centers in the nation for the international pharmaceutical firm. The robbery took place sometime early Sunday but was not discovered until later in the day, when an employee showed up for work, authorities said.

MannKind Corp., the biotechnology company run by billionaire inventor Alfred Mann, failed to win approval from U.S. regulators to market its inhaled insulin drug, Afrezza, for people with diabetes. The Food and Drug Administration asked for more information about the medication, the Valencia company said Monday. While regulators didn't cite any safety concerns, they did request updated safety data, MannKind said. More than 20 million Americans have diabetes, which occurs when someone doesn't have enough of the hormone insulin used to convert blood sugar to energy.

Ruth Lilly, a prolific philanthropist who was the last surviving great-grandchild of pharmaceutical magnate Eli Lilly, died Wednesday in Indianapolis, a family spokesman said. She was 94. The cause of death was not released. Over the course of her life, the reclusive Lilly gave away the bulk of her inheritance from the Eli Lilly & Co. fortune, donating an estimated $800 million, mainly to Indiana-based charitable and arts institutions. In 2002, she gave $100 million to an obscure but influential literary association based in Chicago.

Seeking to cut costs and bring new drugs to market quicker as its bestsellers go off-patent, drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. plans to eliminate 5,500 jobs over two years and reorganize into five business units. The Indianapolis company said it would reduce its workforce nearly 14%, to 35,000 from 40,500, by the end of 2011. Lilly hopes to cut annual costs by $1 billion over that period and will organize itself into cancer, diabetes, established markets, emerging markets and animal health units.

Drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. cleared another legal cloud hanging over its top-selling drug, Zyprexa, when it announced a $62-million settlement Tuesday, but several other storms are still brewing for the antipsychotic medication. Lilly agreed to pay California, 31 other states and Washington to resolve an investigation into the company's marketing practices.

Eli Lilly & Co.'s winning bid of more than $6 billion for cancer drug maker ImClone Systems Inc. means a billion-dollar payday for former rival bidder Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and vindication for corporate raider and ImClone Chairman Carl Icahn. Lilly said Monday that it would pay $70 a share for New York-based ImClone.

Dura Pharmaceuticals Inc. said it's working with Eli Lilly & Co. to develop a pulmonary delivery system for insulin and it would have lower-than-expected earnings for the year. Dura, which had revenue of $181.3 million last year, and Lilly, the world's 10th-largest drug maker, have been working together unannounced for some time to develop a better delivery system for insulin, usually delivered by syringe, Lilly said.

A prominent Emory University psychiatrist received at least $2.8 million in consulting fees from companies whose drugs he was evaluating and failed to report a third of it, congressional investigators studying medical conflicts of interest said Friday. The allegations against Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff, the latest in a series of such charges, are the most striking to emerge from the probe, which seems likely to alter the cozy relationships between prominent academics and the drug industry.

ImClone Systems Inc., the cancer drug maker controlled by billionaire Carl Icahn, said Wednesday that a pharmaceutical company had proposed acquiring it in a deal that was not subject to financing or further due diligence. The prospective buyer requested its name not be divulged yet, ImClone said. Earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported that Eli Lilly & Co. was in talks with ImClone. Lilly, based in Indianapolis, is facing generic competition to its $1.