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Genentech, Inc. (), 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 *.
Product Timeline Awards and Recognitions 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. 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. 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. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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