MedImmune to Add 110 Jobs, Targets $5 Billion in Revenue

This story was corrected at 3:40 p.m. on Tuesday. An explanation follows at the bottom. 

Gaithersburg's largest private employer will add some 110 new jobs to its local and Frederick offices and seeks to take its revenues to unprecedented heights by 2020, a  official told the Gaithersburg mayor and City Council Monday.

MedImmune's Gaithersburg headquarters currently house 2,300 employees, approximately 66 percent of the company's international jobs, MedImmune Executive Vice President of Operations Andy Skibo said, including the addition of 830 jobs over the past five years.

"Virtually all of MedImmune is practically here in Gaithersburg or just up the road in Frederick," Skibo said, but the biotech company continues to expand.

Skibo said the Gaithersburg offices will have an additional 50 positions available "soon" and can potentially accomodate an additional 150 in MedImmune Area 6, a 308,000-square-foot research facility completed in 2011 on its main Gaithersburg campus off Great Seneca Highway near Quince Orchard Road.

Area 6 was built out with an initial capacity of 450 with the space to accommodate 600 employees when fully occupied.

"You have one of the largest players in the industry in your backyard and we're very happy to be here," Skibo told the Gaithersburg mayor and City Council.

An additional 60 positions in the Frederick area are also available shortly, Skibo said.

Along with job growth, the biological-based drug development company plans to significantly increase its annual revenue within the next eight years.

Skibo said MedImmune, which hosts its headquarters and nearly two-thirds of its research and development facilities in Gaithersburg, aspires to reach $5 billion annual revenue in 2020, nearly four-and-a-half times MedImmune's current revenue levels.

The staunch increase is attributed to MedImmune's plans to deliver at least one product launch per year at a steady rate beginning in 2016, Skibo said.

"No other company has done this...it's an enormous undertaking," Skibo said.

MedImmune is the developer of FluMist, a live, intranasal influenza vaccine, and Synagis, a monoclonal antibody indicated for the prevention of serious lower respiratory tract disease caused by a respiratory syncytial virus in children.

MedImmune has approximately 3,500 employees worldwide and is the wholly owned biologics business for AstraZeneca, according to its website.

Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the number of jobs available at Gaithersburg's MedImmune offices and the construction status of its Area 6 research facility.