Knowledge is limited.
Imagination encircles the world.
At the close of 2000, total aggregated biotechnology and medical technology industry employment in Washington exceeded 15,800 people, an increase of 6.5 percent from 1999. It is estimated that these sectors combined indirectly employ more than 56,000 people in the state of Washington. Washington's biotechnology and medical technology industry continues to be diverse in size with the top ten largest companies employing 57 percent of the industry total while seventy percent of the companies employ fewer than fifty people. Immunex , founded in 1981, is the largest biotechnology company in the Pacific Northwest with more than 1,425 employees and is now one of the largest biotechnology companies in the nation. The company's drug Enbrel, the first biologic product for use against rheumatoid arthritis, was one of only 14 biotech drugs approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1998.