On Oct. 10, 1989, ICOS Corp. was founded by Robert Nowinski, Christopher Henney and George Rathmann with $33 million in private financing, the largest industry start-up financing to date with Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates as the largest shareholder.

ICOS completed an initial public offering in 1991 at $8.00 per share for a total of $36 million. On Nov. 21 2003, Cialis (tadalafil), a PDE5 inhibitor discovered through a Glaxo Wellcome (GlaxoSmithKline) ICOS partnership, was approved by the FDA for treating erectile dysfunction (ED) under the name trade name Cialis. In 2006, ICOS was acquired by Eli Lilly and Co. for $34 per share or $2.3 billion.