Published May 2001

Immunex adds processing facility to Bothell site

By Kathy Day
Herald Economy Writer

BOTHELL — Spending $50 million on a facility to help figure out how to make large quantities of proteins that can be used to make genetically engineered drugs may seem like a big investment.

But as executives at Immunex put it during a preview of their new processing facility in Bothell, it’s money well spent on the way to developing safe drugs in the next wave of therapies to treat debilitating diseases.

And it’s about half of what the company, which has its headquarters and small manufacturing facility in downtown Seattle, has spent since 1992 developing its manufacturing and development center in Canyon Park.

The 50,000-square-foot building — one of three now on the 24-acre site — serves as the “seed facility for manufacturing technology,” said Jim Thomas, Vice President of Processing Science.

It acts as a sort of pilot manufacturing plant where the staff can determine what is needed to scale up the process from making small quantities of a potential product for research purposes to making quantities for the commercial market.

Besides producing a safe drug, the process focuses on creating reproducible conditions that ensure consistency in the product, Senior Vice President Efi Cohen Arazi said.

In effect, it’s a process of multiplication, starting at the smallest level.

Working on a 2-liter scale — the first step in the scale-up process — is a lot more economical and can be used to translate the conditions needed to produce on a 2,000-liter scale, which is the amount produced at the process stage, said Facility Director Doug Ward. At the manufacturing stage, the quantity will jump to 12,500 liters at a time.

Immunex scientists have succeeded thus far in developing three drugs that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration:

• Enbrel, for reducing inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis.
• Leukine, to stimulate infection-fighting white blood cells following chemotherapy for acute myelogenous leukemia in people over 55, and for use in bone marrow and stem cell transplants.
• Novatrone, used in treating conditions related to some forms of multiple sclerosis.

Eventually, about 34 people will work in the processing facility.

Adjacent to it is another building where Immunex makes enough product for use in its clinical trials.

Now, Immunex has more than 200 employees at the 23rd Avenue SE facility and another one nearby, in leased offices.

Of the company’s 1,400 work force, 231 live in Snohomish County, said Susan Erb, a Vice President.

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