ICOS Corp.’s acquisition leaves boosters of the region’s biotechnology community pondering once more how to encourage the growth of new companies.
The $2.1 billion purchase of ICOS, the largest biotech company based in the state, comes five years after the buyout of Seattle’s Immunex, which was the state’s previous biotech king.
Both companies were rare examples of biotechs that created blockbuster drugs, hired hundreds of people and achieved relative financial stability.
“What this means for now is that the region doesn’t have any late-stage biotech companies based here,” said Paul Latta, biotechnology analyst for McAdams Wright Ragen in Seattle.
“It’s back to early and intermediate-stage companies whose fortunes are, for better or worse, tied largely to the capital markets.”
He and others noted that Seattle’s ZymoGenetics, which doesn’t yet have any of its own drugs approved and on the market, is the next-largest company in terms of market value. A host of others are much smaller financially than ICOS.
Hand-wringing over Immunex’s purchase and, at first, significant job cuts in the area by buyer Amgen represented a big blow to the region’s biotech community in 2001 and 2002. Since then, Amgen, of California, has added numerous jobs and settled into larger offices in Seattle.
It also plans to hire hundreds more people in the years to come.
The flood of talented employees who were either laid off from the former Immunex or left of their own accord also boosted the ranks of other biotech companies in Snohomish and King counties. A few helped to start new firms.
Eli Lilly has indicated that it plans to keep only a minimal presence in Bothell, if any at all. The Indianapolis pharmaceutical firm has talked of “significant” job cuts locally.
Deborah Knutson, president of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council, hopes Lilly keeps some jobs in Bothell. She expressed mixed feelings at seeing ICOS bought.
“On one hand, it shows the success and strength of the biotech companies here,” she said. “To me, it also says we need to take note and help grow our mature life science companies here. We also need to encourage the former employees to use their talents here.”
Tim Raetzloff of Edmonds, who has tracked the county’s biggest public companies for more than a decade, openly laments the end of ICOS as an independent company. ICOS has been the county’s largest public firm based on market capitalization, so its loss is a big blow to the local roster of companies.
“If you don’t have the full range of companies, you just become a research and development area and a colony of someone else,” Raetzloff said.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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