Genentech

Last updated

Genentech, Inc.
Company type Subsidiary
Industry Biotechnology
Founded1976;48 years ago (1976)
Headquarters South San Francisco, California, United States
Key people
Products Avastin, Herceptin, Rituxan, Perjeta, Kadcyla, Gazyva, Tarceva, Ocrevus, Polivy, Tecentriq, Xofluza, Hemlibra, Venclexta, Esbriet, Cotellic, Alecensa, Zelboraf, Nutropin, Actemra, Lucentis, Xolair, Activase, Cathflo Activase, Xeloda, Boniva, TNKase, CellCept, Pegasys, Pulmozyme, Tamiflu, Valcyte, Anaprox, Cytovene, EC-Naprosyn, Erivedge, Fuzeon, Invirase, Klonopin, Kytril, Naprosyn, Rocephin, Roferon-A, Romazicon, Valium, Xenical, Zenapax
RevenueIncrease2.svg $26.4 billion (2020) [4]
Number of employees
13,539 (July 2021)
Parent Roche
Website gene.com

Genentech, Inc. is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It became an independent subsidiary of Roche in 2009. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent center within Roche. [5] Historically, the company is regarded as the world's first biotechnology company. [6]

Contents

As of July 2021, Genentech employed 13,539 people. [7]

History

The company was founded in 1976 by venture capitalist Robert A. Swanson and biochemist Herbert Boyer. [8] [9] 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. [10] While Cohen returned to the laboratory in academia, Swanson contacted Boyer to found the company. [8] [11] 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. [12] David Goeddel and Dennis Kleid were then added to the group, and contributed to its success with synthetic human insulin in 1978.

In 1990 F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG acquired a majority stake in Genentech. [13]

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. [14]

In March 2009 Roche acquired Genentech by buying shares it didn't already control for approximately $46.8 billion. [15] [16] [17]

In July 2014, Genentech/Roche 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. [18]

Research

Genentech is a pioneering research-driven biotechnology company [13] that has continued to conduct R&D internally as well as through collaborations. [19] [20]

Genentech's research collaborations include:

Facilities

Building 31, one of the newer buildings at Genentech headquarters Genentech Building 31.jpg
Building 31, one of the newer buildings at Genentech headquarters

Genentech's corporate headquarters are in South San Francisco, California ( 37°39′25″N122°22′44″W / 37.657°N 122.379°W / 37.657; -122.379 (Genentech) ), with additional manufacturing facilities in Vacaville, California; Oceanside, California; and Hillsboro, Oregon. In March 2024, it was announced the Swiss pharmaceutical company, Lonza had acquired the Vacaville site from parent-company, Roche for $1.2 billion. [30]

In December 2006, Genentech sold its Porriño, Spain, facility to Lonza and acquired an exclusive right to purchase Lonza's mammalian cell culture manufacturing facility under construction in Singapore. In June 2007, Genentech began the construction and development of an E. coli manufacturing facility, also in Singapore, for the worldwide production of Lucentis (ranibizumab injection) bulk drug substance.[ citation needed ]

In 2023, the company announced plans to close down its manufacturing facility in South San Francisco, while expanding its manufacturing capabilities in Oceanside. [31] [32]

Public-private engagement

Political lobbying

Genentech is a donor to the Center for Health Care Strategies, a non-governmental organization that lobbies the United States Government on issues related to Medicaid. [33]

Genentech Inc Political Action Committee

Genentech Inc Political Action Committee is a U.S. Federal Political Action Committee (PAC), created to "aggregate contributions from members or employees and their families to donate to candidates for federal office". [34]

Controversy

Disputes

In November 1999, Genentech 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.[ citation needed ] Genentech claimed that they developed Protropin (recombinant somatotropin/human growth hormone), independently of UCSF. A jury ruled that the university's patent was valid in July 1999, 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 has contributed greatly to its position as an industry leader.[ citation needed ] 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. [35]

In 2009, The New York Times reported that Genentech's talking points on health care reform appeared verbatim in the official statements of several Members of Congress during the national health care reform debate. [36] Two U.S. Representatives, Joe Wilson and Blaine Luetkemeyer, both issued the same written statements: "One of the reasons I have long supported the U.S. biotechnology industry is that it is a homegrown success story that has been an engine of job creation in this country. Unfortunately, many of the largest companies that would seek to enter the biosimilar market have made their money by outsourcing their research to foreign countries like India." The statement was originally drafted by lobbyists for Genentech.

Products timeline

Diversity and inclusion efforts

Led by Chief Diversity Officer, Quita Beeler Highsmith, Genentech also co-hosts the Health Equity Symposium, a collaboration with healthcare institutions and community organizations to address inequities among diverse populations. [37]

In 2022, Genentech won the following awards for their diversity and inclusion efforts:

Awards and recognitions

See also

Related Research Articles

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F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG, commonly known as Roche, is a Swiss multinational holding healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The company headquarters are located in Basel. Roche is the fifth-largest pharmaceutical company in the world by revenue and the leading provider of cancer treatments globally. In 2023, the company’s seat in Forbes Global 2000 was 76.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trastuzumab</span> Medication

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pertuzumab</span> Pharmaceutical drug

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antibody–drug conjugate</span> Class of biopharmaceutical drugs

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trastuzumab emtansine</span> Pharmaceutical drug

Trastuzumab emtansine, sold under the brand name Kadcyla, is an antibody-drug conjugate consisting of the humanized monoclonal antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin) covalently linked to the cytotoxic agent DM1. Trastuzumab alone stops growth of cancer cells by binding to the HER2 receptor, whereas trastuzumab emtansine undergoes receptor-mediated internalization into cells, is catabolized in lysosomes where DM1-containing catabolites are released and subsequently bind tubulin to cause mitotic arrest and cell death. Trastuzumab binding to HER2 prevents homodimerization or heterodimerization (HER2/HER3) of the receptor, ultimately inhibiting the activation of MAPK and PI3K/AKT cellular signalling pathways. Because the monoclonal antibody targets HER2, and HER2 is only over-expressed in cancer cells, the conjugate delivers the cytotoxic agent DM1 specifically to tumor cells. The conjugate is abbreviated T-DM1.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sacituzumab govitecan</span> Antibody-drug conjugate

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trastuzumab deruxtecan</span> Medication

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References

  1. ↑ "DEPARTURE OF ALEXANDER HARDY & APPOINTMENT OF ASHLEY MAGARGEE AS INTERIM CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER GENENTECH". Genentech. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  2. ↑ Taylor, Nick Paul (May 11, 2020). "Genentech lures Regev from Broad Institute to lead research and early development". FierceBiotech. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  3. ↑ "Changes to the Roche Enlarged Corporate Executive Committee" (Press release). Basel, Switzerland: F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. globenewswire. May 11, 2020. Retrieved May 25, 2020.
  4. ↑ "Genentech".
  5. ↑ "About Us". Gene.com. Archived from the original on August 4, 2014. Retrieved August 22, 2014.
  6. ↑ Russo, Eugene (January 2003). "Special Report: The birth of biotechnology". Nature. 421 (6921): 456–457. Bibcode:2003Natur.421..456R. doi: 10.1038/nj6921-456a . PMID   12540923. S2CID   4357773.
  7. ↑ "Working at Genentech". Great Place to Work. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
  8. 1 2 Russo, E. (2003). "Special Report: The birth of biotechnology". Nature. 421 (6921): 456–457. Bibcode:2003Natur.421..456R. doi: 10.1038/nj6921-456a . PMID   12540923. S2CID   4357773.
  9. ↑ Genentech. "Corporate Overview". Archived from the original on April 18, 2012. Genentech was founded by venture capitalist Robert A. Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert W. Boyer. After a meeting in 1976, the two decided to start a biotechnology company, Genentech. Although the two confidently assert that it was the first biotech company, others clearly came before, including Cetus Corporation which was founded in 1971.
  10. ↑ Cohen, S.; Chang, A.; Boyer, H.; Helling, R. (1973). "Construction of biologically functional bacterial plasmids in vitro". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 70 (11): 3240–3244. Bibcode:1973PNAS...70.3240C. doi: 10.1073/pnas.70.11.3240 . PMC   427208 . PMID   4594039.
  11. ↑ "In January 1976, 28-year-old venture capitalist Robert Swanson entered the picture. A successful cold-call to Boyer's lab led to a couple of beers—and an agreement to start a pharmaceutical company. Investing $500 each, they capitalized a new business, Genentech, to seek practical uses for Boyer and Cohen's engineered proteins. Swanson raised money for staff and labs..." "Who made America? Herbert Boyer". PBS. Archived from the original on June 20, 2012. Retrieved August 28, 2017.
  12. ↑ Itakura, K.; Hirose, T.; Crea, R.; Riggs, A. D.; Heyneker, H. L.; Bolivar, F.; Boyer, H. W. (1977). "Expression in Escherichia coli of a chemically synthesized gene for the hormone somatostatin". Science. 198 (4321): 1056–1063. Bibcode:1977Sci...198.1056I. doi:10.1126/science.412251. PMID   412251.
  13. 1 2 Fisher, Lawrence M. (October 1, 2000). "Genentech: Survivor Strutting Its Stuff". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
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  20. ↑ "Living 10 Years in the Future". Genentech. Archived from the original on August 1, 2016.
  21. ↑ Carroll, John (October 3, 2008). "Genentech teams with Glycart on antibody program". FierceBiotech. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved September 18, 2016.
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  24. ↑ "The Promise and Challenge of Big Data for Pharma". Archived from the original on April 5, 2017. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
  25. ↑ Herper, Matthew. "Surprise! With $60 Million Genentech Deal, 23andMe Has A Business Plan". Forbes. Archived from the original on August 16, 2017. Retrieved August 16, 2017.
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  27. ↑ Lawrence, Stacy (June 23, 2016). "Epizyme nabs combo trial deal with Genentech for NHL candidate | FierceBiotech". www.fiercebiotech.com. Archived from the original on September 6, 2016. Retrieved September 18, 2016.
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  30. ↑ "Lonza to acquire biologics site in Vacaville, US from Roche for $1.2bn - Pharmafile". pharmafile.com. March 20, 2024. Retrieved March 20, 2024.
  31. ↑ Varian, Ethan (March 25, 2023). "Genentech lays off 265 workers in South San Francisco, closes manufacturing plant". The Mercury News .
  32. ↑ Rocha, Natalie (February 21, 2023). "Genentech expands in Oceanside with $450M biotech manufacturing facility and 150 jobs". The San Diego Union-Tribune .
  33. ↑ "History & Funders". Center for Health Care Strategies. 2021. Archived from the original on July 12, 2022. Retrieved July 12, 2022.
  34. ↑ Genentech Inc Political Action Committee, Bloomberg Business, n.d., archived from the original on August 20, 2015, retrieved July 17, 2015
  35. ↑ Genentech Press Release. "University of California and Genentech Settle Patent Infringement Lawsuits". Genentech, Inc. Archived from the original on August 22, 2013. Retrieved November 16, 2015.
  36. ↑ Pear, Robert. "In House, Many Spoke with One Voice: Lobbyists" Archived August 31, 2019, at the Wayback Machine , New York Times, November 15, 2009.
  37. ↑ "College of Medicine receives the Genentech Health Equity & Diversity in STEM Innovation Fund | Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine | Washington State University" . Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  38. ↑ COUNCIL", "JARED. "America's Best Employers For Diversity 2022". Forbes. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  39. ↑ SCHWARZ", "ALAN. "America's Best Large Employers 2023". Forbes. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  40. ↑ "Human Rights Campaign". Human Rights Campaign. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
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