Searle closing spawns biotech start-up firms

Chicago Tribune
October 29, 2007
Employees' skills let them build enterprises that they can control

by Jon Van

He is president of a profitable company with more than 40 employees, but Michael Schlosser is a reluctant entrepreneur who only started his company because he had to.

In 2003, after a series of mergers, Pfizer Inc. closed the former G.D. Searle & Co. facility in Skokie, ending 1,500 jobs, including Schlosser's. Like many of his colleagues, Schlosser enjoyed his work and living near Chicago. The closure forced him to make a decision.

"Several of us were sitting in a bar and said we should start a company," said Schlosser. So they did.

Schlosser and his colleagues who started Midwest BioResearch LLC are among dozens of former Searle employees whose job terminations stirred them to launch start-up biotech companies in the Chicago area. Many were scientists and most were content in their work, unlikely to leave a major pharmaceutical firm to venture into the unknown waters of entrepreneurship.

Advice available

Seeking advice, Schlosser contacted Illinois BIO, the local biotech trade group, and was put in touch with several veteran entrepreneurs, including Tom Churchwell, managing director of the Chicago-based ARCH Development Partners venture fund.