Latest news with #Columbus-based
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a day ago
- Business
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Hexion plans Dublin research and development lab that will employ 100
Hexion, the Columbus-based adhesives and chemical company, plans to establish a research and development center in Dublin that is expected to employ 100. The company, which traces its roots to 1857, plans to consolidate its five existing research laboratories into one building to bring its chemical engineering, manufacturing and materials science teams under one roof. The concentration is designed to "elevate the company's research capabilities and foster deeper technical collaboration across disciplines," according to a news release announcing the expansion. 'At Hexion, innovation isn't just a commitment — it's our catalyst for transformation and a key part of our long-term growth strategy," Hexion President and CEO Michael Lefenfeld said in the release. "The launch of our new R&D center in Dublin marks a bold leap forward, allowing us to continue to pioneer next-generation solutions that redefine what's possible for customers across the globe.' The company, for decades known as Borden, evolved into a global adhesives, manufacturing automation systems and AI technologies company. The Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved a 10-year tax break for the Dublin expansion, following the city of Dublin's approval of an income tax break for the project. 'Hexion's decision to build an innovation lab in Dublin further positions the city as a center for advanced research and development,' said Dublin Economic Development Administrator Jenna Goehring in the news release. 'This project reflects our continued focus on attracting and supporting companies at the forefront of material science and sustainable technologies." More: Back to life: Hexion emerges from bankruptcy The company cited the state's STEM pipeline as a key factor in its decision. Hexion said hiring will begin immediately and more than 40 employees from the company's existing R&D sites will relocate to the region. Hexion expects the center to reach the 100 employee goal by 2028. The center is expected to generate $11.7 million in new annual payroll. Real estate and Development Reporter Jim Weiker can be reached at jweiker@ and at 614-284-3697. Follow him @JimWeiker This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: 168-year-old Columbus company plans Dublin expansion Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
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4 days ago
- General
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Dresden man acquitted on rape charges after his wife was found guilty on lesser charges
ZANESVILLE – A Dresden man has been acquitted on seven sexual abuse charges originating from a three-person sexual relationship in March 2024. The jury found Wesley James Stotts, 40, not guilty on three counts of rape, first-degree felonies; three counts of sexual battery, third-degree felonies; and gross sexual imposition, a fourth-degree felony; according to court documents. The trial ended on May 21. Stotts was indicted on Jan. 8, along with his wife, Ashton Whitney Stotts, 37, who was also accused of the same seven crimes. Ashton was found guilty on three counts of sexual battery after a trial May 29. The case's one female victim alleged that she was drunkenly raped by both during the encounter, noted Samuel H. Shamansky, a Columbus-based attorney representing Stotts. He was also counseled by Donald L. Regensburger. "Wesley was extremely grateful for the manner for which Judge Cottrill ensured a fair trial," Shamansky noted. He also applauded the jury for its ability to follow instructions and produce a fair environment. The prosecutor's office had no comment. Wesley and Ashton were both booked and briefly detained in the Muskingum County Jail Feb. 10 on $100,000 bonds. More: Zanesville police waiting for autopsy results of skeletal remains found on Adams Street Shawn Digity is a reporter for the Zanesville Times Recorder. He can be emailed at sdigity@ or found on X at @ShawnDigityZTR. This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Dresden man not guilty of rape; wife found guilty on lesser charges
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4 days ago
- Business
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Ohio's Cleveland Clinic faces questions over booming subsidies
A medical exam room. File photo from Federal officials are raising questions about exploding drug discounts under a program meant to fund services for low-income patients, and Ohio's Cleveland Clinic is at the center of some of them. Over a 38-month period ending in June 2023, the massive nonprofit hospital received nearly $1 billion from the program. However, the clinic didn't cut drug prices for any of its low-income patients, instead plowing the money into its general budget. Officials at the clinic told congressional investigators that they used the money in other ways to help poor patients. Yet in 2023, the nonprofit hospital had enough money to pay 22 of its executives more than $1 million and another 30 over $500,000 — and still finish the year with nearly $1 billion in 'net income.' A private business would call that 'profit.' For its part, the clinic pointed out that its operating income was much smaller than that, and that it spent almost as much on free or discounted care in 2023. Cleveland Clinic was one of two hospitals to come under scrutiny as part of a U.S. Senate investigation of a drug-discounting program known as 340B. It requires drugmakers who want to sell their products to Medicaid patients to also sell them to qualifying hospitals and clinics at deep, legally defined discounts. The hospitals and clinics then sell them at much higher prices and pocket the difference — notionally, to provide care to people who can't afford it. When it was created in 1992, 340B was intended to free up money and make federal resources go further for providers who cared for a heavy mix of low-income and underinsured patients. But after the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 and the 340B rules were changed, the amount of discounts provided under the program exploded — from $5 billion a year to nearly $67 billion in 2023. That's not free money, and the discounts to 340B providers are made up by other payers — including the poor, said Antonio Ciaccia, a Columbus-based drug-pricing analyst. As the amount of that money grew 13-fold in as many years, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee wanted to know whether 340B was really fulfilling the program's goal to 'stretch scarce Federal resources as far as possible.' The multi-year investigation focused on two hospitals. 'These hospitals were selected for this investigation as a result of media reports alleging abuse of the 340B Program, such as hospitals cutting services to underserved populations and expanding into affluent areas to increase reimbursement rates and subsequent revenue under the 340B Program,' the committee report, which was released last month, said. The other hospital chain, Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy Health, will be the subject of a separate story. Regarding Cleveland Clinic, the Senate report referred to a 2022 Wall Street Journal story. It said the hospital didn't admit enough Medicaid and low-income patients to qualify under the original 340B rules. But under a quirk in the new rules, it was allowed in as a 'rural-referral center' even though it's headquartered in the middle of a big city. In analyzing the data the submitted by Cleveland Clinic, the Senate committee found that between April 2020 and June 2023, the hospital chain received $934 million in benefit from the 340B program. Yet, even though the reason for the program's existence is to support care for people who can't do so themselves, Cleveland Clinic didn't use those funds to directly defray patients' drug costs. 'Cleveland Clinic… explained that it does not pass 340B discounts directly to patients because 'there is no dollar-for-dollar, pass-on requirement to patients under the 340B statute' and the statute 'was intentionally left general to provide safety-net providers with latitude on how they use their savings in the ever-changing health care industry,'' the report said. Instead, Cleveland Clinic said it 'applies its 340B benefit 'to the health system's overall operating expenses and revenues in order to offset the cost of providing health care services to the communities [it] serve[s] and to maintain and invest in programs that enhance patient services and access to care.'' Cleveland Clinic said it didn't track the 340B millions after putting them in the revenue pot. But it said it spends huge amounts underwriting care for low-income Ohioans. In 2023, it provided $261 million in free or discounted care to more than 110,000 patients, a spokeswoman said on background. The clinic is the leading provider of Medicaid services, charity care and mental health services in Ohio, she said. She also pointed out that in 2024, Cleveland Clinic had an operating margin of $276 million, while it spent $261 million discounting care a year earlier. However, that excludes income the tax-exempt nonprofit makes from its sizable investments. When you include that, Cleveland Clinic made $911 million in net income in 2023, Healthcare Dive reported. Also, those narrow operating margins come after paying out hefty salaries. According to Cleveland Clinic's 2023 IRS Form 990, President and CEO Tom Mihaljevic was paid $7 million. That was more than 100 times Ohio's median household income for that year. In all, more than 50 of the top decision-makers at Cleveland Clinic made more than $500,000 as they set and enacted a budget subsidized by hundreds of millions of 340B dollars that are notionally meant to support charity care. 'Cleveland Clinic sets executive compensation in accordance with the process developed by the IRS to ensure that such compensation is determined in a fair and impartial manner taking relevant comparative data into account,' the clinic's spokeswoman said. In its response to the Senate report, Cleveland Clinic claimed the 340B program doesn't cost taxpayers. 'As the cost of providing healthcare continues to rise, the 340B program helps us save resources that would have otherwise been spent on purchasing medications but instead can be directed to providing care, at no additional taxpayer expense,' it said. However, just as others have to pay the taxes nonprofits don't, drugmakers don't simply absorb the tens of billions in discounts they're required to give under the 340B program, said Ciaccia, the drug pricing analyst. In fact, many of the low-income patients the program is supposed to benefit help pay for it. That's because those with private insurance — or who are uninsured — don't pay for drugs on the basis of 340B discounts. They have to pay based on the inflated prices the clinic and its contracted pharmacies charge in order to generate the program's income. Everyone with employer-based insurance also pays because those plans also don't get the 340B discount — or in some cases even a slice of manufacturer rebates they might get in non-340B pharmacy transactions, Ciaccia said. And, as with so many other things, increased insurance costs are usually passed on to consumers. Ciaccia added that as with rebates, mandatory 340B discounts give drugmakers an incentive to increase the list prices of drugs — increases that are felt most acutely by those who are least able to pay. 'In recent years, the list prices for drugs have arguably exploded, creating greater and greater pressure for government programs, employers, and sick patients to access medicines — not through actual affordable prices — but instead through negotiated or mandated discounts off of those bloated prices,' Ciaccia said. 'Programs like 340B double down on our system's addiction to discounts, pressuring the list prices of medicines higher. But instead of passing those discounts through, the end payer gets stuck with a bloated tab at the pharmacy counter. One way or another, the bill always comes due.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
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6 days ago
- Business
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Nearly 300 new apartments coming to Renaissance Pointe in Middletown
May 28—Hallmark Communities has plans to construct 288 apartments at Renaissance Pointe in Middletown off Union Road. A final development plan was approved by the city's planning commission, and the developer can now apply for permits. Following permits, construction will start. City planner Claire Fetters-Binegar said the development will set a "standard for all future multi-family developments going forward for the city." Columbus-based Hallmark Communities and engineer Bayer Becker made the request for the development, called Gateway Lofts, which will be constructed in the southwestern section of Renaissance Pointe, according to city documents. The almost 300 units will sit on a total of just over eight acres in seven, three-story apartment buildings. A variety of units for rent will be available: — 36 efficiency/studio units at 460 square feet — 210 one-bedroom units ranging from 592-785 square feet — 42 two-bedroom units at 988 square feet A reduction in the minimum square footage for the efficiency units was requested, as the minimum for multi-family units have a minimum of 500 square feet. Covered porches or balconies will be consistent features for all seven apartment buildings. Additional buildings including a clubhouse, a pool with a pool building, maintenance building, two pickleball courts, fitness center and mail kiosk are planned. Hallmark Communities previously constructed University Edge apartments near the University of Cincinnati, Nantucket Apartments in Loveland and Gateway Lofts in Centerville. The company has an upcoming Gateway Lofts near downtown Cincinnati, as well.
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6 days ago
- Business
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Shuttered central Ohio biotech firm faces lawsuit from former employees over layoffs
NEW ALBANY, Ohio (WCMH) – A former employee of AmplifyBio is suing the shuttered biotechnology firm, alleging the company laid off its workers without prior notice. The closed research firm that specialized in drug development laid off all 212 of its employees on April 4, the same day it announced its permanent closure on its website. The company had a facility in both New Albany and West Jefferson. Why the Short North may soon charge extra for dining, shopping A lawsuit filed by an ex-employee last week in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio claims workers were not notified of the layoffs before April 4, the day the terminations occurred. Federal law requires employers with 100 or more staff members to provide a written notice at least 60 days before a mass layoff. The former employee who filed the suit, Taylor Freeman, also alleges that the company did not offer him any severance pay. He filed the class action complaint on behalf of himself and other workers affected by the layoffs, seeking damages amounting to back pay — or wages an employee would have earned if they were not fired — for each day AmplifyBio violated the law, 'plus benefits.' In AmplifyBio's April closure announcement, the company said the decision came after months of 'tireless efforts' to explore all 'investment and acquisition possibilities.' The firm claimed the biotech market has seen a 'significant shift' in recent years, leading to scarce investor financing for early-stage biotech firms. 'It is with deep sadness and gratitude that we announce the closure of AmplifyBio's operations,' the company wrote. Following deputy's death, Morrow County businesses pledge support Battelle, a nonprofit Columbus-based research institute, partnered with investors to launch the for-profit biotech firm in 2021. AmplifyBio raised $200 million from investors, including entities such as JD Vance's venture capital fund Narya Capital and Connecticut-based Viking Global Investors. The company launched its West Jefferson facility at 1425 Plain City-Georgesville Road in 2021, and opened its New Albany facility at 9885 Innovation Campus Way in 2023. The biotech firm briefly drew criticism in 2022 from Rolling Stone magazine and the animal rights group PETA for its animal testing practices. The backlash came after a monkey at the company's West Jefferson facility escaped its enclosure and got stuck in lab equipment, ultimately resulting in its death, according to a United States Department of Agriculture report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
