Biotech experts wary of Pfizer cutting Seagen workforce — but history reveals silver lining
Rendering of Seagen's new planned manufacturing facility north of Seattle. (Seagen Image) Seattle-area biotech experts are eying the past with a wa...
Rendering of Seagen's new planned manufacturing facility north of Seattle. (Seagen Image) Seattle-area biotech experts are eying the past with a wary eye in the wake of this week's news that Pfizer plans to acquire Bothell, Wash.-based Seagen for a whopping $42 billion. Most previous acquisitions in the Seattle region have ultimately gutted biotech companies and their workforces, including at Immunex, Icos, Corixa and Zymogenetics. That history has some on edge about Seagen's future. 'Historically, acquisition has not enabled our successful biotechs to persist locally,' said Alan Wahl , an early Seagen employee and CEO of Seattle-area biotech startup Abacus Bioscience.