Icos

Icos is famous for tadalafil, a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction. The drug was discovered by GlaxoSmithKline, developed by Icos, and manufactured and marketed in partnership with Eli Lilly. Cialis was the only drug developed by the company to be approved. In April 2008, I Cos sold its share of the 50% share of profits from resulting drugs to Eli Lilly and Company for $1.2 billion.

About Icos in brief

Icos was the largest biotechnology company in the U.S. state of Washington. It was founded in 1989 by George Rathmann, Robert Nowinski, and Christopher Henney. Icos is famous for tadalafil, a drug used to treat erectile dysfunction. The drug was discovered by GlaxoSmithKline, developed by Icos, and manufactured and marketed in partnership with Eli Lilly. Cialis was the only drug developed by the company to be approved. CMC Biologics, a Danish contract manufacturer, bought the remnants of Icos and retained the remaining employees. Eli Lilly acquired Icos in January 2007, and most of I Cos’s workers were laid off soon after. In May 2009, tadalfil, to be sold as Adcirca Therapeutics, was approved for once-daily use in Europe in June 2007 and in the United States in January 2008. The release of tadal fil in United States was delayed in April 2002 when the Food and Drug Administration recommended that Icos perform more studies, improve labelling, and address manufacturing issues. In August 2009, the drug was approved in the US and Europe in May 2009 and in May 2010 in Europe and May 2011 in the UK and Australia. The name Icos comes from a 20-sided polyhedron, which is the shape of many viruses, and was chosen because the founders originally thought retroviruses might be involved in inflammation. The founders raised USD 33 million in July 1990 from many investors, including Bill Gates, who at the time was the biggest shareholder, with 10% of the equity.

The company initially had temporary offices in downtown Seattle, but moved to Bothell in September 1990. I Cos went public on June 6, 1991, raising USD 36 million, raising a total of USD 33 million. In 1998, Icos formed a 50-50 joint venture with Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly to develop and commercialize tadalFil. In 2006, Cialfil generated USD 971 million in sales, leading Icos to post its first quarterly profit in its first-ever quarterly profit, leading to its first ever annual profit in August 2007. In April 2008, I Cos sold its share of the 50% share of profits from resulting drugs to Eli Lilly and Company for $1.2 billion. The sale was completed on October 1, 2008, and Icos was no longer a publicly-traded company. The last day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange was October 31, 2008. It is now a privately-held company called Icos Biopharmaceuticals, based in Bellevue, Washington, with offices in Seattle, Bellevue and Bellevue. It went public in 1991 and raised USD 36 million. It has since gone public again, raising $33 million, with Bill Gates as the largest shareholder. It also manufactured antibodies for other biotechnology companies. During its 17-year history, the company conducted clinical trials of twelve drugs, three of which reached the last phase of clinical trials.