Genentech

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Genentech, Inc.

Slogan	In business for life
Type	Public (NYSE:DNA)
Founded	1976
Headquarters	South San Francisco, California, USA
Key people	Arthur D. Levinson, Chairman & CEO Susan D. Desmond-Hellmann, President of Product Development
Industry	Biotechnology
Products	Insulin, Protropin, Activase, Actimmune, Nutropin, Pulmozyme, Rituxan, Herceptin, TNKase, Xolair, Raptiva, Avastin, Tarceva, Lucentis
Revenue	$6.633 Billion USD (2005)
Net income	$1.278 Billion USD (2005)
Employees	9,500 (2005)
Website	http://www.gene.com/

A typical building at Genentech's headquarters campus in South San Francisco

Genentech, Inc. (NYSE: DNA), a composite of Genetic Engineering Technology, Inc., is a leading biotechnology corporation, which was founded in 1976 by Robert A. Swanson, a venture capitalist, and biochemist Dr. Herbert W. Boyer. It is considered to have founded the biotechnology industry.

One of its founders, Dr. Herbert W. Boyer, is considered to be one of the pioneers in the field of recombinant DNA technology (the company's ticker symbol reflects Boyer's contribution to the field). Boyer worked with Arthur Riggs and Keiichi Itakura from the Beckman Research Institute, and the group became the first to successfully express a human gene in bacteria when they produced the hormone somatostatin in 1977. David Goeddel and Dennis Kleid were then added to the group, and contributed to its success with insulin in 1978.

Currently (2006), Genentech employs more than 10,000 people and Arthur D. Levinson is the Chairman and CEO. The Swiss pharmaceutical conglomerate Hoffmann-La Roche owns the majority of Genentech shares [1].

1 Product Timeline
2 Awards and Recognitions
3 Facility locations
4 Disputes
5 References
6 Research
7 External links

[edit] Product Timeline

1982 - Human Insulin - First ever approved genetically engineered human therapeutic
1985 - Protropin® (somatrem) - Supplementary growth hormone for children with growth hormone deficiency.
1987 - Activase® (recombinant tissue plasminogen activator)- To dissolve blood clots in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Also used to treat non-hemmoragic stroke.
1990 - Actimmune® (interferon gamma 1b) - Treatment of chronic granulomatous disease.
1993 - Nutropin® (recombinant somatropin) - Growth hormone for children and adults for treatment before kidney transplant due to chronic renal insufficiency.
1994 - Pulmozyme® (dornase alfa) - Inhalation treatment for children and young adults with cystic fibrosis - recombinant DNAse.
1997 - Rituxan® (rituximab)- Treatment for specific kinds of non-Hodgkins lymphomas.
1998 - Herceptin® (trastuzumab) - Treatment for metastatic breast cancer patients with tumors that overexpress the HER2 gene. Recently approved for adjuvant therapy for breast cancer.
2000 - TNKase® (tenecteplase) - "Clot-busting" drug to treat acute myocardial infarction.
2003 - Xolair® (omalizumab) - Subcutaneous injection for moderate to severe persistent asthma.
2003 - Raptiva® (efalizumab) - Antibody designed to block the activation and reactivation of T cells that lead to the development of psoriasis.
2004 - Avastin® (bevacizumab) - Anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody for the treatment of metastatic cancer of the colon or rectum.
2004 - Tarceva® (erlotinib) - Treatment for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, and pancreatic cancer.
2006 - Lucentis® (ranibizumab injection) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved LUCENTIS(TM) (ranibizumab injection) for the treatment of neovascular (wet) age-related macular degeneration (AMD). The FDA approved LUCENTIS after a Priority Review (six-month). Genentech started shipping product on June 30th, 2006.

[edit] Awards and Recognitions

Genentech was named one of the 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers in 2004 by Working Mothers magazine.
It was named as one of the 100 best corporate citizens 2005 by the Business Ethics Magazine
Fortune Magazine has named Genentech number one on its 2006 list of the "100 Best Companies To Work For." This is the first number one ranking for the company, which has been named to the list for eight consecutive years. The ranking is based on anonymous employee responses to a survey as well as an evaluation of the company's policies and culture.

[edit] Facility locations

Genentech's corporate headquarters is at South San Francisco, CA, with additional manufacturing facilities in Vacaville, California and Porrino, Spain. In June 2005, Genentech purchased Biogen Idec's manufacturing facility in Oceanside, California. On March 17, 2006, Genentech announced its decision to construct a new manufacturing facility in Hillsboro, Oregon which is expected to be operational by 2010.

[edit] Disputes

In 1999, Genentech has agreed to pay the University of California, San Francisco, $200 million to settle a nine year old patent dispute. In 1990, UCSF sued Genentech for $400 million in compensation for alleged theft of technology developed at the university and covered by a 1982 patent. Genentech claimed that they developed Protropin, a growth hormone, independently of UCSF. A jury ruled that the university's patent was valid last July, but wasn't able to decide whether Protropin was based upon UCSF research or not. Protropin, a drug used to treat dwarfism, was Genentech's first marketed drug and its $2 billion in sales is has contributed greatly to Genentech's position as an industry leader. The settlement was to be divided as follows: $30 million to the University of California General Fund, $85 million to the three inventors and two collaborating scientists, $50 million towards a new teaching and research campus for UCSF, and $35 million to support university-wide research.

[edit] References

Corporate Chronology. Genentech Inc.. Retrieved on May 30, 2005.

[edit] Research

The company places a lot of importance on research in the basic sciences and to that end, it has on its rolls some of the best scientists of the contemporary era. Prominent ones include Senior VP Marc Tessier-Lavigne who discovered netrins and VP Vishva Dixit who is a leading authority on apoptosis.