Published November 2000

ICOS Corp. earns statewide honors for revenue growth

Herald Business Journal Staff

ICOS recently celebrated its 10th anniversary and also was feted at Paul Allen’s Experience Music Project in Seattle as the state’s fastest-growing technology company.

ICOS, which is headquartered in south Snohomish County, won first place in the annual Washington State Technology Fast 50 awards sponsored by the Deloitte & Touche accounting firm.

The award honors revenue growth for the past five years, not employee growth, and is given to companies that use proprietary technology to produce a technology-related product.

Established in 1990 to develop new medicines, ICOS has gone from $1.5 million in revenue in 1995 to $79.6 million in 1999 — and this despite the fact that the firm has yet to market its first product.

But it has brought in revenue from the beginning by establishing partnerships with well-established pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly.

ICOS hopes to market its first product, Cialis, in 2002. Cialis, now in late-stage trials, is a male impotence drug similar to Viagra that is expected to work faster.

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