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Member Profile: Biotech Giant Dramatically Improves Lives |
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Written On: July/August 2004 |
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Written By: by Paul Schlienz |
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Biotech Drugs Being Developed On Seattle’s Waterfront
Amgen, the world’s largest biotech company, uses an arsenal of advanced science and highly trained personnel in support of a simple, profoundly humanistic goal.
“We’re in the business of trying to develop therapeutics with drugs that will dramatically improve people’s lives,” said Randy Hassler, Amgen’s vice president of quality and operations. “We try to translate ideas that come out of research environments into commercially viable products.”
A striking campus along Elliott Bay, at the foot of Seattle’s Queen Anne Hill, and another site, in nearby Bothell, house approximately 850 Amgen employees. These facilities are the focus of Amgen’s efforts to develop innovative drugs for cancer and rheumatoid diseases.
Headquarted in Thousand Oaks, CA, with facilities around the world, Amgen is part of the biotech revolution in medicine. Biotech, which did not even exist until the 1970s, uses genetic engineering to create new medicines. Biotech drugs work at the cell level to alter genes and cell interactions to effect cures. Biotechnology’s first product was recombinant human insulin, developed by Genentech, in 1982, to help patients with diabetes.
Meanwhile, in 1981, the founding of Immunex, in Bothell, put Washington on the biotech map. Over its lifespan, the company made major contributions to biotech by producing the cancer drug Leukine, Noventrone for multiple sclerosis and cancer, most famously, Enbrel for rheumatoid diseases.
Immunex’s chief rival was none other than Amgen, which had incorporated, in 1980, as Applied Molecular Genetics. Amgen’s major products were Epogen for anemia and the cancer drug Neupogen, which vastly outsold Immunex’s Leukine.
In 2002, the two rival companies merged under the Amgen name for roughly $16 billion. Through this marriage, Amgen obtained Immunex’s crown jewel Enbrel, which had sales of over $800 million at the time of the merger.
Enbrel’s impact on the life of John Pennington, regional director of the Federal Emergency Management Administration for Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska is spectacular proof of the drug’s value. Pennington, who was a Washington state legislator at the time, was suddenly and cruelly struck down by ankylosis spondylitis, a debilitating rheumatoid condition. Barely able to move and facing life as an invalid when he started taking Enbrel, the drug plus a steady regimen of physical therapy brought Pennington back to a healthy, active life.
“Amgen has a vision, and there’s no question in my mind that Washington’s biotech industry is fit,” Pennington said. “It’s leading the nation now, and it’s going to lead us into many cures.
“We’ve seen the Industrial Revolution. We saw the high tech revolution, and now we’re seeing the biotech revolution in this country and Washington state. The companies and brains that are behind them are very squarely on the front end of this revolution.”
To say that Washington is in the center of the biotech revolution is no exaggeration. Besides Amgen, our state is home to other significant biotech firms, including Seattle’s Zymogenetics, Cell Therapeutics, Corixa and Dendreon; and Bothell’s Icos and Seattle Genetics.
Biotechs Need Healthy Research Environment
“There are a couple of important factors at a high level that have encouraged the growth of biotech in Washington,” Hassler said. “Biotech and bioscience companies, in general, have a tendency to locate wherever there is a healthy, vigorous research environment, which we have here in Washington. With the likes of the University of Washington, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and not-for-profit organizations, like FBRI [Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation], Seattle is very much a hotbed of research activity. And the ideas for our products come from research.”
“We also need to have a climate that’s conducive to starting a business and growing it. Basic infrastructure, like transportation; the educational system, the availability of venture capital money or seed money; and issues like local zoning ordinances all affect the business climate.”
Earlier this year, the Washington State Legislature passed HB 2546, sponsored by Rep. Jim McIntire (D-Seattle). Signed into law by Gov. Gary Locke, the bill extended research and development tax credits that were set to expire this year. This legislation was of great importance to Washington’s biotech industry because it typically takes startup biotech companies years to become profitable due to the extended period of time required to develop a drug and receive Federal Drug Administration approval before it can be sold.
“The R&D tax credits are critical, especially for the smaller startups, which are struggling,” Hassler stated. “Typically, the money has a tendency to flow out the door much more quickly than it comes in. Things like the R&D tax credits are sometimes a make or break situation for small companies.
“I think there are a lot of great things in place in Washington. Hopefully, we’ll continue to see growth in biotech/biosciences. I think there’s a lot of momentum at the state and city level in terms of partnering with the biotech/biosciences community. We’re working on projects together, like the push to redevelop Seattle’s South Lake Union district, which is hopefully going to help the biotech sector into the future.”
“In the debate between the free market system versus socialized medicine, we must not lose focus on what has been so successful and is allowing American researchers to do their job and go find drugs to cure people like me,” Pennington concluded. “We must allow flexibility with the understanding that a drug costs a higher amount for about 10 years because biotech companies invest so very much in the development of their drugs. Government should either intervene in a good way or simply back out and let researchers do their work.”
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