Genentech: A $1,000 Bet, Bacterial Insulin, Herceptin and Avastin

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In 1976 venture capitalist Robert Swanson, 28, cold-called biochemist Herbert Boyer, and over beers they put in $500 each to found Genentech. Boyer and Stanley Cohen had shown in 1973 that restriction enzymes could cut DNA fragments for insertion into another organism via plasmids; Cohen stayed in academia, while Boyer chose commercialization. In 1977, working with the Beckman Research Institute, Genentech got bacteria to produce the human hormone somatostatin, the first human gene expressed in bacteria that way. In 1978 it made synthetic human insulin, approved in 1982 as Humulin and licensed to Eli Lilly, which had the manufacturing scale and regulatory experience Genentech lacked.

Genentech followed with Protropin growth hormone in 1985, the clot buster Activase in 1987, Rituxan for lymphomas, and in 1998 Herceptin, an antibody that blocks HER2 growth signals in some breast cancers. Avastin, launched in 2004 to cut off tumors' blood supply, lost its breast cancer approval in 2011 when larger studies showed no significant survival benefit. In 2013 Kadcyla attached chemotherapy to a targeting antibody. Roche took a majority stake in 1990 and bought the rest in 2009 for about $46.8 billion.

In 1999 Genentech paid UCSF a $200 million settlement ending a nine-year suit claiming Protropin used university technology.
Genentech bought Tanox in 2006 and Seragon in 2014 to feed its pipeline.
A 2015 deal worth $60 million gave it access to 23andMe genetic data.
In 2009 Representatives Joe Wilson and Blaine Luetkemeyer read talking points drafted by Genentech lobbyists on biosimilar exclusivity on the House floor.
In 2024 Lonza bought Genentech's Vacaville, California, manufacturing site for $1.2 billion.

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