Lilly Patches Up Relationships in Seattle Biotech, Pushes TB Drug Discovery
Summary
Almost two years ago, the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant took over Icos, the Northwest’s most valuable biotech company, grabbing the billion-dollar erectile dysfunction drug it created and sending 365 talented local workers to the unemployment lines.Yet Lilly is planting some interesting seeds for the future of Seattle biotech that could ultimately mean a lot more for human health than a new lifestyle drug.This morning I stopped by a press conference at the Seattle Life Sciences Center on First Hill (next door to the Xconomy offices) to learn more about The Lilly TB Drug Discovery Initiative.This effort got its start a year ago with $9 million of drug-screening equipment that Lilly acquired from Icos, had no use for anymore, and subsequently donated to the Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) in Seattle.Lilly and fellow pharma giant Merck contributed 500,000 small-molecule chemical compounds for screening as tuberculosis drug candidates, and three veteran Icos scientists—Ed Kesicki, Allen Casey, and Joshua Odingo—all decided to devote the next chapter of their careers to this TB effort.