I don't think it's a change in direction, because the large-molecule approach is still what Amgen is very good at. Amgen is preparing to aggressively expand its chemistry program toward the end of this year, including in the process chemistry area. The company is currently building a chemistry wing at its Thousand Oaks facility that will add approximately 100 hood spaces to its laboratories. Mass. Genetics Institute is another traditional biotech company with an emphasis on protein therapeutics. Two years ago, Genetics Institute was acquired by Wyeth-Ayerst.
Some people argue that biotech companies are more innovative than pharmaceutical companies.
With the advent of genomics and every major company being involved in genomics in all therapeutic areas, I think that distinction has blurred. He believes that the distinction between pharmaceutical and biotech companies is less relevant today than it was in the early 1990s. Many start-up biotechnology companies have chemistry at their core. For example, Sugen pursued small-molecule therapeutics from its beginning, McMahon says. Sugen uses a variety of chemical approaches, including combinatorial and computational chemistry.