State and local officials gave $117 million in tax incentives to win expansion of a West Chester pharmaceutical plant whose owner, Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc., never had serious intentions to go anywhere else, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Dr. Michael Kalafatis was working on an experiment in the Cleveland State University Chemistry Department involving blood coagulation when he discovered that a substance he was using killed cancer cells without damaging surrounding tissue.

Ohio researchers take note: An experimental artificial pancreas soon will be tested in diabetes patients and could be commercially available in four years.

Laser vision correction procedure volume by LCA-Vision Inc. in Cincinnati continued to declined in the fourth quarter of 2009, the company reported Tuesday.

Laid-off workers and dependents who were the first to receive federal COBRA subsidies to help pay for health care coverage will lost those subsidies today.

The Cleveland-area company, which offers electronic clinical trials products, reported a net loss of $39,000 in its second quarter, the three months ending June 30. That compares to a loss of $16 million for the same period in 2008. For the last six months, DATATRAK has a net loss of $827,000 compared to an $18.23 million net loss for the same period in 2008.

The company has been in violation of the stock market’s minimum equity rule since last September, but had been appealing and presenting plans on how it planned to meet NASDAQ’s basic standards.

DATATRAK International Inc. lost more money and brought in less revenue in 2008 than in 2007. Last year, the company also reorganized operations, cut costs, settled a lawsuit, lost a chief executive and appointed an interim CEO. Now, its interim president since May 2008 is departing.

The former vice president at ClickFind was named in a suit last year by Datatrak that said ClickFind didn’t reveal important information during Datatrak’s acquisition of the Texas company in 2006. Now Chris Wilke, an architect of the ClickFind software that makes up Datatrak’s main offering, is the vice president of R & D.

Jeffrey Green has retired as chief executive of DataTrak International Inc., the Mayfield Heights company that develops software and services for clinical researchers. A search for a new CEO will begin in the next several weeks.