Marsh Taken Off the Market

$1.75 • © IBJ MEDIA 2010 CENTRAL INDIANA’S BUSINESS AUTHORITY VOL. 31 NO. 25 • 36 PAGES • AUGUST 23-29, 2010 INSIDE Bad for ITT Strategy key as Marsh The for-profit college could see profit arts groups launch evaporate under Artful simultaneous proposed federal taken student-lending rules. 3 campaigns Hot product ask Toning shoes aren’t off the embraced by all, but they’re ringing up big sales at Finish Line. 3 market Unable to sell grocery chain, Sun Capital eyes expansion

By Cory Schouten [email protected] First in state The parent company of Marsh Supermarkets Lilly alum Diana plans to continue investing in the local grocery Caldwell is co-founder chain after it failed to find a buyer. of a firm that could Florida-based Sun Capital Partners late last stoke clinical trial By Kathleen McLaughlin year hired an investment adviser and began activity here. 6 [email protected] soliciting offers for the chain of roughly 100 wave of fundraising pitches is stores, half in Indianapolis. Industry observers FOCUS about to wash over Indianapolis say the asking price was $130 million to $150 Education arts supporters. million. There were no takers. Resurgent Marion Five organizations either have Sun has cleaned up the chain’s balance sheet, County school districts A spruced up dozens of stores, and tweaked the announced or are working toward the launch are showing up affluent of major campaigns. Targets rolled out so product mix since it paid $88 million in cash and districts by at least one far range from $12.5 million for Heartland assumed $237 million in debt to acquire Marsh measure. 15 Truly Moving Pictures to $100 million for in September 2006. But none of the moves has the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. boosted Marsh’s market share in Indianapolis, Civic Theatre, the Indianapolis Mu- where it still lags both Walmart and Kroger. seum of Art and the Eiteljorg Museum of For regional and national grocery operators, American Indians and Western Art are all acquiring a chain that’s third place in its home Business news as it happens working toward launches in 2011. market is a tough sell, said David J. Livingston, an A sixth player is The Center for the Per- independent grocery analyst based in Wisconsin. forming Arts in Carmel. The city is paying “They’re not ahead of the game like Kroger wski o for construction of the concert hall and and Walmart,” he said of Marsh. “They’re strug- theater complex, but Executive Director gling. They’ve been looked at by every possible Steven Libman still must raise money for acquirer, and they’ve been turned down. No one the 2011 opening season and, eventually, a felt like they were worth the price.” Deborah Strzeszk supporting endowment. The center, which Since the private equity firm took over Marsh,

ation/ it has slashed $70 million in overhead, sold $80

str See CAMPAIGNS page 30 million in real estate, and spun off non-grocery J Illu

IB See MARSH page 28 St. V seeks growth in transplants Hospital system plans to add pancreas procedures, maybe others, to compete with Clarian

By J.K. Wall Dr. Paul W. Nelson, director of transplant in Indiana: St. Vincent, Clarian and Lutheran [email protected] services at St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital, Hospital in Fort Wayne. said he hopes to begin performing pancreas In 2009, Lutheran performed 37 transplants, St. Vincent Health is moving aggressively to transplants before the end of the year. Liver St. Vincent 45 and Clarian a whopping 483. expand its transplant program in a direct chal- transplants will take more time, probably three St. Vincent and Lutheran do only heart and kid- lenge to Clarian Health’s dominance in the field. to five years, he said. ney transplants, whereas Clarian also performs The Indianapolis-based hospital system, via its “We’re on an upswing,” he said, adding, “We liver, pancreas, lung and intestine transplants. 2-year-old partnership with the Cleveland Clinic, want to grow our market share.” Growing in transplants could bring St. Vin- filed in July for permission to conduct pancreas Right now, St. Vincent has a paltry share of cent more prestige, which could help it attract transplants in Indianapolis. And down the road, Indiana’s organ transplant procedures. Only patients to the rest of its services, said Ed Abel, it’s eyeing liver and maybe even lung transplants. three hospital systems perform such procedures See TRANSPLANTS page 30 6 • AUGUST 23-29, 2010 • INDIANAPOLIS BUSINESS JOURNAL New firm to pre-screen clinical drug trials Pearl is targeting hospitals among its Pearl IRB is commercial ‘institutional review board’ potential clients. It would essentially run the IRB for hospitals, likely producing a Pearl IRB By Chris O’Malley keting at Lilly teamed with Lilly alumnus quicker result. Even if it cannot provide the Business: state’s first commercial [email protected] Gretchen Bowker to form Pearl. In recent actual IRB review for hospitals, it hopes “institutional review board” providing years, the two worked at Indianapolis- to at least provide training to investigators guidance for clinical trials Before the first volunteer takes a needle based regulatory compliance firm Safis and administrative services tailored to the Address: 351 W. 10th St. in the arm to test an experimental drug, Solutions. Bowker was also serving on excruciating regulatory requirements. Founded: 2010 the proposed clinical trial must first be IHIF’s clinical trial task force. A light A clinical trial can be easily invali- Employees: 10 vetted by a panel of experts, known as an dated, at great cost, if investigators fail bulb went off about the potential for a Principals: institutional review board, or IRB. commercial IRB. to follow procedures such as adequately I Diana Caldwell, former In Indiana, the IRB typically is the “It’s a fabulous thing as far as I’m con- documenting results. director of sales and province of medical experts at a hospital cerned,” said Kristen Jones, president and For many, the IRB process is thought of marketing at or university. But recently, two former as a “difficult, mysterious and often very CEO of the IHIF. Indianapolis-based Safis Caldwell Eli Lilly and Co. employees launched the She noted that many of the IRBs in In- frustrating process,” Caldwell said. Solutions and former state’s first commercial IRB, saying Pearl diana are made up of personnel from a Yet at the same time, many sponsors of sales and marketing IRB could help attract and support more hospital, who may meet every couple or trials, including drug companies, are de- executive at Eli Lilly clinical trials here. three months. That can delay the launch of manding faster results and increasingly are and Co. That’s been a goal of industry groups a trial and ultimately cost money for firms turning to commercial IRBs to help. Even I Gretchen Miller Bowker, such as the Indiana Health Industry Fo- trying to get a drug or device to market. a small biopharma firm may be under former director of rum’s clinical trial task force, which is So far, Pearl has put together a core board pressure to achieve goals to receive mile- compliance services trying to stoke clinical trial activity and of seven reviewers from various medical stone payments from venture capital firms, delivery at Safis; previous capabilities to support and grow the life backgrounds, covering the spectrum from or from a large drug company with which roles at Eli Lilly and Roche Bowker sciences and medical device industry. drugs to medical devices and diagnostics. it is collaborating. Diagnostics, which has its Indiana lags some neighboring states The board meets on Thursdays and usually “The sponsors really pushed this [com- U.S. headquarters here in clinical trials, with 4,556 in process completes its initial review in about a week. mercial IRB] trend. They want more effi- Source: Pearl IRB or completed over the last several years, An IRB will pore over the proposed ciency and transparency,” Caldwell said. compared with 7,737 in Illinois and 8,206 protocol of a trial and qualifications of Many of the state’s biggest life sciences So far, Pearl IRB has just a handful of in Ohio, according to the National Insti- its investigators. It will look at how the companies already use commercial IRBs clients. But the women-owned business is tutes of Health. sponsor of the trial plans to recruit trial out of state. The closest such IRB is in looking at markets such as Canada. “We are under-indexed in terms of get- subjects and whether consent documents Cincinnati, Bowker said. The IHIF sees significant potential for ting clinical trials,” said Diana Caldwell, are written in such a way that participants Many of the large clinical trials are more clinical trials in Indiana. Among president and co-founder of Pearl. can understand them. conducted in multiple locations, with the group’s ideas is to form the Indiana Robust clinical trial activity can bring A more fundamental question is whether each site focused mostly on only its role Clinical Trial Alliance. economic benefits, such as more business the proposed trial will be safe for patients. in the trial. A clinical research assistance program for laboratories and imaging providers, The initial review can cost upwards of “Somebody has to be looking at that big under the alliance could serve as a “vir- Caldwell noted. $8,000. There’s also ongoing study review, picture,” Bowker said, noting the potential tual incubator and accelerator” for clinical The former veteran of finance and mar- which can cost $1,000 or more. of a central IRB oversight. trial sites.•

Visit us Frost Brown Todd voted one of the “absolute best”* @ in Client Service

Frost Brown Todd was voted 25 of 505 of the largest law firms in the nation for superior client service. Clients applaud the firm for the quality of its counsel and service, its competitive rates and its willingness to invest in and train top-notch legal talent.

Frost Brown Todd offers a full range of legal services for businesses that demand value and responsiveness from their law firms. For more information, visit frostbrowntodd.com.

201 North Illinois Street | Suite 1900 | Indianapolis | 317.237.3800 Offices in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia. Your News. Your Way.