Immunex executive Phillips won't join Amgen after all

Peggy Phillips, who has risen through the ranks at Immunex to become one of the leading women in the biotechnology industry, will not become an executive at Amgen despite earlier assurances that she would become part of its inner circle.

Phillips, Immunex's chief operating officer, delivered the news to employees Thursday in an internal memo.

She will stay until the merger with Amgen is completed, she wrote, but has decided to "chart a different course" at an early stage company or a nonprofit organization. She said she will be available to Amgen as a consultant for at least a year.

"I loved being part of Immunex up to today's stage of adolescence," she wrote. "I will be looking for that type of experience, building a team and an operation, in the future."

The move is a reversal for Phillips, 48, who appeared to have an executive job locked up when Amgen's multibillion-dollar purchase of Immunex was announced in December.

At that time, Amgen Chief Executive Kevin Sharer said in a news release that Phillips would become an executive vice president, join the executive committee, and report directly to him.

Phillips would not say how the situation changed.

The departure of Phillips, a well-respected insider and leader at Immunex, could be a blow for employees, who are dismayed about jobs disappearing and changing.

Phillips will not leave empty-handed. She is eligible to receive a $2.6 million severance payment, employee insurance benefits and perks for three years, and outplacement services for a year, documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission show. She owns 1.4 million Immunex shares and stock options, worth a total of about $26 million. Last year, her salary and bonus were $1.2 million.

Phillips joined Immunex in 1986 as a lab screener when the company was a little-known scientific shop looking for a cure for cancer. She won respect of colleagues, earned a series of promotions, and in the mid-1990s, made her name presiding over the development of Enbrel, a breakthrough drug for patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

In 1999, shortly after the Food and Drug Administration approved Enbrel and sales were soaring, Phillips was promoted to chief operating officer. Her watch hasn't been entirely smooth. Immunex has been unable to make enough Enbrel to meet demand.

Several executives said Phillips' skills will be in demand.

"There are few people out there with the credentials she's got in operating a biotech or pharmaceutical company," said David Urdal, chief scientific officer of Seattle-based Dendreon.

Phillips said the last several months have been emotional for her and colleagues as they confront radical change and the end of an era. On the day of the takeover announcement, she cried while talking about the benefits of being part of Amgen.

"To me, the strength of Immunex is our ability to work together as a team, and our ability to accomplish what many people thought was impossible," Phillips said. "In the last several months, we've celebrated what we've done and concentrated on how to influence an organization moving forward that can accomplish even greater things."

Luke Timmerman: 206-515-5644 or ltimmerman@seattletimes.com