BOTHELL – It’s been nearly three months since Eli Lilly &Co. acquired ICOS Corp. and told its 700 employees, including more than 500 in Bothell, that their jobs would disappear.
But the company’s offices and labs in Canyon Park aren’t dark yet. In fact, about 275 employees are still on the job there, said Phil Belt, a Lilly spokesman.
About 150 of those are working at the contract manufacturing facility, which makes batches of drugs for other companies. The other 125 are being “phased out over time,” Belt said via e-mail.
“The time at which an employee’s employment ends varies by individual,” Belt explained. “Thus, there is not one clean ‘layoff schedule,’ but rather a gradual phasing out of the remaining employees.”
Founded in 1990, ICOS grew to be one of the most valuable public companies based in Snohomish County after developing the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis. But when its shareholders voted Jan. 25 to approve Lilly’s $2.3 billion buyout, Lilly indicated nearly all of the local employees could be jobless by March.
Donna Thompson of the Employment Security Department in Everett admitted her agency thought the layoffs would come “more in one big lump.”
So far, employment staff have helped about 100 former ICOS workers with job counseling services, and they are passing along leads to a private job placement firm working with ICOS.
At the contract manufacturing facility, the majority of staff could stay on until previous commitments to customers are fulfilled near the end of this year, Belt said. In the meantime, Lilly hopes to find a buyer for that operation.
“It is still our intent to sell the manufacturing facility, and we hope that this is done in such a way that a buyer would keep it as an ongoing business,” Belt said. “We have no specific update to provide on the progress of the efforts to find a buyer.”
Matt Smith, vice president of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council, said he’s offered his assistance to Lilly in that effort. He said Lilly seems serious in keeping the operation going under a new owner.
“They realize the longer it is until they sell it, the more talent they’ll lose there, so it’s in their interest to find a buyer sooner rather than later,” Smith said.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
For more biotechnology news, visit reporter Eric Fetters’ blog at www.heraldnet.com.
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