A company spokeswoman didn’t provide a reason for ex-CEO Michael Tillman’s departure and said a replacement would be identified “shortly.”

Positioning itself to take advantage of the well-documented nursing shortage, Orbis Educational Services Inc. has received an $8.65 million investment to further its nursing education programs.

Under the terms of the deal with publicly traded Incyte Corp., Lilly receives worldwide rights to develop and commercialize the compound as an oral treatment for all inflammatory conditions

Fresh off a $12 million fund-raise, sleep services and equipment provider Dormir Inc. has gone shopping, acquiring 15 sleep-therapy centers in the western United States for an undisclosed sum.

The consumer health services provider has appointed former Indianapolis mayor Stephen Goldsmith to sit on its board of directors.

Eli Lilly on Monday followed the path of Pfizer and Merck when it announced a pre-emptive strike against its looming losses. Lilly will cut 5,500 jobs — 13.5 percent of its 40,500-strong workforce — and trim $1 billion from its budget by 2011. The drug company has stumbled to get new drugs on the market, and a 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.

The 1-year-old company offers a service called Know Error that uses a three-step process to cut down on so-called switching errors of prostate biopsies due to mislabeling or misplaced slides, among other things.

The partnership with Lilly’s Phenotypic Drug Discovery Initiative (PD ) turns university research over to Lilly scientists to determine their potential. Researchers and the school retain intellectual property rights. But Lilly will get the first chance to either collaborate on further research or enter into a licensing agreement.

The move is a trend that’s happened to several pharmaceutical-based funds, which used to pick its start ups to secure product rights. Now, though, those dollars are used to keep up on new technologies and make money. Lilly Ventures in its old form couldn’t take profits from investments because Lilly’s compensation policies did not permit it.

The Myriad is a minimally invasive surgical tool to remove all soft tumor tissue in the central nervous system. The company says it cuts procedure times and gives surgeons better control for difficult tissue shaving around critical areas in the body.