Weekend Rounds: Lilly faces realities of a dwindling drug pipeline — and takes a management plunge

Looking back at last week, here are the stories that stood out at MedCity News:

• Facing a dwindling drug pipeline and drugs going off patent, Indianapolis drug maker Eli Lilly on Monday announced a pre-emptive strike against its looming losses, saying it would cut 5,500 jobs — 13.5 percent of its 40,500-strong workforce — and trim $1 billion from its budget by 2011. The reorganization that will be in place by year’s end will force different segments of the business to be more accountable for its profits and losses, and move quickly to push new drugs through the pipeline.
• Also on Monday, Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove apologized to employees for any “hurtful” comments connected to a recent national discussion he’s led about obesity, personal responsibility and health care. By week’s end, Dr. Cosgrove was back on the campaign trail, taking to CNBC on Thursday night with a fat-friendly message on obesity and wellness.
• Las Vegas city officials gave the go-ahead on Wednesday to a development plan that is the first step in building a new Cleveland Clinic medical campus there. Las Vegas officials said they’ve talked with the Clinic on and off since 2002, but until recently, Cleveland Clinic has refused its suitor. What finally brought the two sides together was the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health, opened earlier this year and is managed the Clinic, which sits at a corner adjacent to the land now under consideration for expansion.
• Late in its middle-age, the Ohio Third Frontier project has created $6.6 billion in economic impact and 41,300 jobs, an independent research institute told members of the Third Frontier advisory board and commission Tuesday. The Third Frontier and Ohio universities invested $681 million in research, development and commercialization projects, entrepreneur-development organizations and venture capital funds in that time. That represents an investment return of 10-to-1.
• Trustees of Ohio State University on Friday approved architecture and construction plans for ProjectONE — a $1 billion building project to expand education, research and care at the university’s medical center. Calling ProjectOne “one of the largest job-generating initiatives in Ohio’s history,” Ohio State said it is expected to create as many as 10,000 full-time jobs and more than 5,000 construction jobs. The project is expected to generate $1.7 billion in annual economic impact by 2015.
• More development news: On its first anniversary, the BioInnovation Institute in Akron added “Austen” to its name, recognizing internationally renown heart surgeon and retiring Knight Foundation Chairman Dr. W. Gerald Austen and his wife Patricia R. Austen; the U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved a new version of St. Jude Medical’s cardiac mapping tool: EnSite Velocity Cardiac Mapping System, a fast-acting test by Diagnostic HYBRIDS that can detect a series of diseases, including certain types of flu, and Meridian Bioscience claims that its TRU FLU testing device can detect two strains of 2009 H1N1 Influenza A virus– swine flu; STERIS Corp. and Sherwin-Williams Co.will receive $6.5 million out of a total of $24.5 million of U.S. Defense Department money for Ohio projects that support the research and development of technology for military use; and Summa Health System and Vibra Healthcare will build and run a $23-million, 60-bed rehabilitation hospital on the campus of Summa’s Akron City Hospital.