On Jun. 4, 1981, ICOS Corporation completed its IPO in 1991 at at $8.00 per share for a total of $36 million. ICOS was founded in 1989 by Robert Nowinski, Christopher Henney and George Rathmann.

ICOS was established with $33 million in private financing, the largest industry start-up financing to date, with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates as the largest shareholder. In 2006, ICOS was acquired by Eli Lilly for $34 per share or $2.3 billion.