The story
Founded by Herbert Boyer and Robert A. Swanson in 1976.1
History
The company was founded in 1976 by venture capitalist Robert A. Swanson and biochemist Herbert Boyer. Boyer is considered to be a pioneer in the field of recombinant DNA technology. In 1973, Boyer and his colleague Stanley Norman Cohen demonstrated that restriction enzymes could be used as "scissors" to cut DNA fragments of interest from one source, to be ligated into a similarly cut plasmid vector. While Cohen returned to the laboratory in academia, Swanson contacted Boyer to found the company. 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 synthetic human insulin in 1978.
In 1982, Genentech agreed to sell a 6.5 percent equity stake to Corning Glass Works under which the companies created a jointly owned venture called Genencor to develop industrial enzymes using recombinant DNA technology.
In 1990 F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG acquired a majority stake in Genentech.
In 2006 Genentech acquired Tanox in its first acquisition deal. Tanox had started developing Xolair and development was completed in collaboration with Novartis and Genentech; the acquisition allowed Genentech to keep more of the revenue.
In March 2009, Roche fully acquired Genentech and made it a wholly owned subsidiary by buying all remaining shares it did not already control for approximately $46.8 billion.
In July 2014, Genentech acquired Seragon for its pipeline of small-molecule cancer drug candidates for $725 million cash upfront, with an additional $1 billion of payments dependent on successful development of products in Seragon's pipeline.
Products timeline
1982: Synthetic "human" insulin approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), partnered with insulin manufacturer Eli Lilly and Company, who shepherded the product through the FDA approval process. The product (Humulin) was licensed to and manufactured by Lilly, and was the first-ever approved genetically engineered human therapeutic.
1985: Protropin (somatrem): Supplementary growth hormone for children with growth hormone deficiency (ceased manufacturing 2004).
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1987: Activase (alteplase): A recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (tPa) used to dissolve blood clots in patients with acute myocardial infarction. Also used to treat non-hemorrhagic stroke.
1990: Actimmune (interferon gamma 1b): Treatment of chronic granulomatous disease (licensed to Intermune).
1993: Nutropin (recombinant somatropin): Growth hormone for children and adults for treatment before kidney transplant due to chronic kidney disease.
1993: Pulmozyme (dornase alfa): Inhalation treatment for children and young adults with cystic fibrosis—recombinant DNAse.
1997: Rituxan (rituximab): Treatment for specific kinds of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. In 2006, also approved for rheumatoid arthritis.
1998: Herceptin (trastuzumab): Treatment for metastatic breast cancer patients with tumors that overexpress the HER2 gene. Recently approved for adjuvant therapy for breast cancer. FDA also recently approved Trastuzumab for metastatic gastric cancer with HER2 receptor site positive.
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. Developed in partnership with XOMA. In 2009, voluntary U.S. market withdrawal after reports of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy.
2004: Avastin (bevacizumab): Anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody for the treatment of metastatic cancer of the colon or rectum. In 2006, also approved for locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. In 2008, accelerated approval was granted for Avastin in combination with chemotherapy for previously untreated advanced HER2-negative breast cancer. In 2009, Avastin gained its fifth approval for treatment of glioblastoma multiforme, and sixth approval for the treatment of metastatic renal cell carcinoma. It was most publicized for its approval in advanced breast cancer treatment, but the FDA approval for breast cancer treatment was subsequently revoked in November 2011.
2004: Tarceva (erlotinib): Treatment for patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, and pancreatic cancer.
2006: Lucentis (ranibizumab injection): 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 30, 2006, the day the product was approved.
2010: Actemra (tocilizumab): The first interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor-inhibiting monoclonal antibody approved to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
2011: Zelboraf (vemurafenib): For the treatment of metastatic melanoma caused by BRAF mutation.
2012: Erivedge (vismodegib): Treatment for advanced basal-cell carcinoma (BCC). A small molecule inhibitor that targets a key protein in the Hedgehog signaling pathway. This is the first approved therapy for advanced BCC.
2012: Perjeta (pertuzumab): For use in combination with Herceptin (trastuzumab) and docetaxel chemotherapy for the treatment of patients with previously untreated HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.
2013: Kadcyla (ado-trastuzumab emtansine): The first Genentech antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) to receive FDA approval. It consists of trastuzumab (Herceptin) linked to a cytotoxic agent mertansine (DM1), used in the treatment of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.
2013: Gazyva (obinutuzumab): For use in combination with chlorambucil to treat patients with previously untreated chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Gazyva is the first drug with breakthrough therapy designation to receive FDA approval.
2014: Esbriet (pirfenidone): An anti-fibrotic drug for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Developed by Intermune, Inc.
2015: Cotellic (cobimetinib): For use in combination with ZELBORAF (vemurafenib), to treat metastatic melanoma caused by BRAF mutation.
2015: Alecensa (alectinib): Treatment for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
2016: Venclexta (venetoclax): Treatment for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who have a chromosomal abnormality called 17p deletion and who have been treated with at least one prior therapy.
2016: Tecentriq (atezolizumab): First-in-class anti-PD-L1 antibody for the treatment of advanced bladder cancer or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), both after failure of platinum-based chemotherapy. Tecentriq was granted accelerated approval for its advanced bladder cancer indication due to promising phase II results.
2017: Ocrevus (ocrelizumab): The first FDA-approved therapy that treats both relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS). The PPMS form of the disease previously had no approved treatments.
2017: Hemlibra (emicizumab): Treatment for haemophilia A. Developed by Chugai Pharmaceutical Co.
2018: Xofluza (Baloxavir marboxil): Antiviral medication for treatment of influenza A and influenza B. Developed by Shionogi.
2019: Polivy (Polatuzumab vedotin-piiq): Treatment of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma when used in combination with bendamustine and rituximab.
From Wikipedia’s article on Genentech, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4