Good news and gossip from Bothell

Back on Jan. 1, as the new year started, I resolved to get back to updating this blog at least a couple of times a week. Then I got busy again … So I’m just now getting around to it. BUT, I intend to make this a habit again.

After declaring the final drug in its clinical-stage pipeline — aside from tadafidal/Cialis — dead on arrival last week, ICOS actually has some good news. They’re hiring! It’s already a big company with 675 or so employees, and now they’re recruiting drug development scientists and related people for the clinical affairs department there. For details, click on:

http://www.icos.com/openhouse

Albany Molecular doesn’t draw much attention in Bothell, as its facility there is strictly for research (The corporate headquarters and main facilities are in Albany, NY, hence the company’s geographic-specific name). But it is part of the biotech community here. The Business Review in Albany just did a profile on how the company’s changing to stay alive. Click on either link here:

http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2005/03/28/story1.html

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7314253/

The Boston Globe also has a story about how the big pharma companies are relying even more on smaller biotechs to help them come up with the next big drugs. The story mentions Bothell-based Nastech’s deal with Merck to develop an anti-obesity nasal spray:

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/biotechnology/articles/2005/03/29/drug_makers_court_small_firms_in_push_to_fill_thinning_pipelines/

And who knew that Seattle’s Corixa (a biotech firm I admittedly don’t track much) had a big manufacturing plant in, of all places, Montana? But it’s true, and Corixa is looking to expand there:

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/03/29/build/state/47-biotechproject.inc