The Little Company That Can

The Little Company That Can By Bob Grant Photo by Catherine Ledner ARTICLE EXTRAS Best Places to Work 2007 Sandoz stands out Top 30 Companies Top Large Companies Top Small Companies Most Important Factors Top Companies on the Most Important Factors Categories Best Places to Work: Survey Findings PDF Amylin Pharmaceuticals, a 20-year-old biopharmaceutical company based in San Diego, broke into ou

Written byBob Grant

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ARTICLE EXTRAS

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, a 20-year-old biopharmaceutical company based in San Diego, broke into our top ten last year and is the only small company to retain its Top Small Company ranking (seventh place) while growing significantly over the last two years. In 2005, Amylin netted $206 million, brought two first-in-class diabetes drugs to market, and has added 721 new employees over the last two years.

So how does this little company grow so much while remaining a great place to work? 

The answer is simple: Amylin employees, no matter how large their company gets, take great pride in their work. Christian Weyer, executive director of the clinical research department at Amylin, says this sense of pride permeates the entire organization, from laboratory technicians to executive officers. "There is a lot of passion among people here for what they do," he says. Weyer adds that this shared sense of ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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