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Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech
In the fall of 1980, Genentech, Inc., a little-known California genetic engineering company, became the overnight darling of Wall Street, raising over $38 million in its initial public stock offering. Lacking marketed products or substantial profit, the firm nonetheless saw its share price escalate from $35 to $89 in the first few minutes of trading, at that point the largest gain in stock market history. Coming at a time of economic recession and declining technological competitiveness in the United States, the event provoked banner headlines and ignited a period of speculative frenzy over biotechnology as a revolutionary means for creating new and better kinds of pharmaceuticals, untold profit, and a possible solution to national economic malaise.
Drawing from an unparalleled collection of interviews with early biotech players, Sally Smith Hughes offers the first book-length history of this pioneering company, depicting Genentech’s improbable creation, precarious youth, and ascent to immense prosperity. Hughes provides intimate portraits of the people significant to Genentech’s science and business, including cofounders Herbert Boyer and Robert Swanson, and in doing so sheds new light on how personality affects the growth of science. By placing Genentech’s founders, followers, opponents, victims, and beneficiaries in context, Hughes also demonstrates how science interacts with commercial and legal interests and university research, and with government regulation, venture capital, and commercial profits.
Integrating the scientific, the corporate, the contextual, and the personal, Genentech tells the story of biotechnology as it is not often told, as a risky and improbable entrepreneurial venture that had to overcome a number of powerful forces working against it.
Drawing from an unparalleled collection of interviews with early biotech players, Sally Smith Hughes offers the first book-length history of this pioneering company, depicting Genentech’s improbable creation, precarious youth, and ascent to immense prosperity. Hughes provides intimate portraits of the people significant to Genentech’s science and business, including cofounders Herbert Boyer and Robert Swanson, and in doing so sheds new light on how personality affects the growth of science. By placing Genentech’s founders, followers, opponents, victims, and beneficiaries in context, Hughes also demonstrates how science interacts with commercial and legal interests and university research, and with government regulation, venture capital, and commercial profits.
Integrating the scientific, the corporate, the contextual, and the personal, Genentech tells the story of biotechnology as it is not often told, as a risky and improbable entrepreneurial venture that had to overcome a number of powerful forces working against it.
213 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2009
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May 2, 2020
A great history of Genentech's evolution from underfunded company with no office to IPO. Full of interesting details like:
* In the early days, they ran "ho-ho" beer happy hours, which were more characteristic of Silicon Valley free-wheeling startups than pharmaceutical companies of the day.
* Genentech employees were injected with Genentech's synthetic HGH as a safety study prior to Phase 1 "first-in-man" trials.
* Under the stress of competing to be the first to produce synthetic HGH, a former employee at UCSF stole template DNA in the dead of night, which played no small part in Genentech's success.
With $1M in-hand early in 1977 (~$4M today) and nearly an equal amount later in milestone payments, Genentech proceeded to artificially synthesize three proteins in increasing order of complexity: somatostatin, human insulin, and human growth hormone. Five years later, Genentech's insulin was approved for sale, marking the first time recombinant DNA was used to manufacture pharmaceuticals for human use.
As exhilarating as the journey must have been, it's a sobering reminder of how much has changed (ossified, if you will) in the pharmaceutical industry since the 1970s. Today, building a new pilot plants to produce material for a few hundred patients a month, barely enough for a full Phase 3 study, can cost upwards of $50M -- out of reach for everyone but pharma companies with the biggest pockets. R&D costs, averaged over the # of new drugs marketed, can be up to $1B per new drug. What gives?
* In the early days, they ran "ho-ho" beer happy hours, which were more characteristic of Silicon Valley free-wheeling startups than pharmaceutical companies of the day.
* Genentech employees were injected with Genentech's synthetic HGH as a safety study prior to Phase 1 "first-in-man" trials.
* Under the stress of competing to be the first to produce synthetic HGH, a former employee at UCSF stole template DNA in the dead of night, which played no small part in Genentech's success.
With $1M in-hand early in 1977 (~$4M today) and nearly an equal amount later in milestone payments, Genentech proceeded to artificially synthesize three proteins in increasing order of complexity: somatostatin, human insulin, and human growth hormone. Five years later, Genentech's insulin was approved for sale, marking the first time recombinant DNA was used to manufacture pharmaceuticals for human use.
As exhilarating as the journey must have been, it's a sobering reminder of how much has changed (ossified, if you will) in the pharmaceutical industry since the 1970s. Today, building a new pilot plants to produce material for a few hundred patients a month, barely enough for a full Phase 3 study, can cost upwards of $50M -- out of reach for everyone but pharma companies with the biggest pockets. R&D costs, averaged over the # of new drugs marketed, can be up to $1B per new drug. What gives?
January 12, 2016
My reading of Genentech follows my reading Science lessons abotu Amgen and this is a review I published elsewhere (my blog) os apologies for any inconsistency...
I have to admit I had never heard of the Bancroft Library’s website (http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/pro...) for the Program in Bioscience and Biotechnology Studies, “which centerpiece is a continually expanding oral history collection on bioscience and biotechnology [with ] in-depth, fully searchable interviews with basic biological scientists from numerous disciplines; with scientists, executives, attorneys, and others from the biotechnology industry.”
The invention of new research and business practices over a very short period
Swanson was captivated: “This idea [of genetic engineering] is absolutely fantastic; it is revolutionary; it will change the world; it’s the most important thing I have ever heard.” [… But Swanson was nearly alone.] “Cetus was not alone in its hesitation regarding the industrial application of recombinant DNA technology. Pharmaceutical and chemical corporations, conservative institutions at heart, also had reservations.” [Page 32] “Whatever practical applications I could see for recombinant DNA… were five to ten years away, and, therefore, there was no rush to get started, from a scientific point of view.” [Page 32] “I always maintain” Boyer reminisced, “that the best attribute we had was our naïveté… I think if we had known about all the problems we were going to encounter, we would have thought twice about starting… Naïveté was the extra added ingredient in biotechnology.” [Page 36]
The book shows the importance of scientific collaborations. Not just Boyer at UCSF but for example with a hospital in Los Angeles. A license was signed with City of Hope Hospital with a 2% royalty on sales on products based on the licensed technology. “[…] negotiated an agreement between Genentech and City of Hope that gave Genentech exclusive ownership of any and all patents based on the work and paid the medical center a 2 percent royalty on sales of products arising from the research.” [Page 57]
Even if in 2000, City of Hope had received $285M in royalties, it was not happy with the outcome. After many trials, the California Supreme Court in 2008 awarded another $300M to City of Hope. So the book shows that these collaborations gave also much legal litigation. [Page 58]
In a few years, Genentech could synthesize somatostatin, insulin, human growth hormone and interferon. It is fascinating to read how intense, uncertain, stressful these years were for Swanson, Perkins, Boyer and the small group of Genentech employees and academic partners (Goeddel, Kleid, Heyneker, Seeburg, Riggs, Itakura, Crea), in part because of the emerging competition from other start-ups (Biogen, Chiron) and academic labs (Harvard, UCSF).
“On August 25, 1978 – four days after Goeddel’s insulin chain-joining feat – the two parties signed a multimillion-dollar, twenty-year research and development agreement. For an upfront licensing fee of $500,000, Lilly got what it wanted: exclusive worldwide rights to manufacture and market human insulin using Genentech’s technology. Genentech was to receive 6 percent royalties and City of Hope 2 percent royalties on product sales.” [Page 94] They managed to negotiate a contractual condition limiting Lilly’s use of Genentech’s engineered bacteria to the manufacture of recombinant insulin alone. The technology would remain Genentech’s property, or so they expected. As it turned out, the contract, and that clause in particular, became a basis for a prolonged litigation. In 1990, the courts awarded Genentech over $150 million in a decision determining that Lilly had violated the 1978 contract by using a component of Genentech’s insulin technology in making its own human growth hormone product. [Page 95] Perkins believed that the 8 percent royalty rate was unusually high, at a time when royalties on pharmaceutical products were along the lines of 3 or 4 percent. “It was kind of exorbitant royalty, but we agreed anyway – Lilly was anxious to be first (with human insulin)” […]The big company – small company template that Genentech and Lilly promulgated in molecular biology would become a prominent organizational form in a coming biotechnology industry. [Page 97]
The invention of a new culture
Young as Swanson was, he kept everyone focused on product-oriented research. He continued to have scant tolerance for spending time, effort, and money on research not tied directly to producing marketable products. “We were interested in making something usable that you could turn into a drug, inject in humans, take to clinical trials.” A few year before his premature death, Swanson remarked, “I think one of the things I did best in those days was to keep us very focused on making a product.“ His goal-directed management style differed markedly from that of Genentech’s close competitors. [Page 129]
But at the same time Boyer would guarantee a high quality research level by encouraging employees to write the best possible scientific articles. This guaranteed the reputation of Genentech in the academic world.
A culture was taking shape at Genentech that had no exact counterpart in industry or academia. The high-tech firms in Silicon Valley and along Route 128 in Massachusetts shared its emphasis on innovation, fast-moving research, and intellectual property creation and protection. But the electronics and computer industries, and every other industrial sector for that matter, lacked the close, significant, and sustained ties with university research that Genentech drew upon from the start and that continue to define the biotechnology industry of today. Virtually every element in the company’s research endeavor – from its scientists to its intellectual and technological foundations – had originated in decade upon decade of accumulated basic-science knowledge generated in academic labs. […] At Boyer’s insistence, the scientists were encouraged to publish and engage in the wide community of science. [Page 131]
But academic values had to accommodate corporate realities: at Swanson’s insistence, research was to lead to strong patents, marketable products, and profit. Genentech’s culture was in short a hybrid of academic values brought in line with commercial objectives and practices. [Page 132]
Swanson was the supportive but insistent slave driver, urging on employees beyond their perceived limits: “Bob wanted everything. He would say, If you don’t have more things on your plate than you can accomplish, then you’re not trying hard enough. He wanted you to have a large enough list that you couldn’t possibly get everything done, and yet he wanted you to try.” […] Fledging start-ups pitted against pharmaceutical giants could compete mainly by being more innovative, aggressive, and fleet of foot. Early Genentech had those attributes in spades. Swanson expected – demanded – a lot of everyone. His attitude was as Roberto Crea recalled: “Go get it; be there first; we have to beat everybody else… We were small, undercapitalized, and relatively unknown to the world. We had to perform better than anybody else to gain legitimacy in the new industry. Once we did, we wanted to maintain leadership.” […] As Perkins said “Bob would never be accused of lacking a sense of urgency. “ […] Even Ullrich, despite European discomfort with raucous American behavior, admitted to being seduced by Genentech’s unswervingly committed, can-do culture. [Page 133]
New exit strategies
Initially Kleiner thought Genentech would be acquired by a major pharma company. It was just a question of when. He approached Johnson and Johnson and “floated the idea of a purchase price of $80 million. The offer fell flat. Fred Middleton [Genentech’s VP of finance], present at the negotiations, speculated that J&J didn’t have “a clue about what to do with this [recombinant DNA] technology – certainly didn’t know what it was worth. They couldn’t fit it in a Band-Aid mold”. J&J executives were unsure how to value Genentech, there being no standard for comparison or history of earnings.” [Page 140]
Perkins and Swanson made one more attempt to sell Genentech. Late in 1979, Perkins, Swanson, Kiley and Middleton boarded a plane for Indianapolis to meet with Eli Lilly’s CEO and others in top management. Perkins suggested a selling price of $100 million. Middleton’s view is that Lilly was hamstrung by a conservative “not invented here” mentality, an opinion supported by the drug firm’s reputation for relying primarily on internal research and only reluctantly on outside contracts. The company’s technology was too novel, too experimental, too unconventional for a conservative pharmaceutical industry to adopt whole-heartedly. [Page 141]
When Genentech successfully developed interferon, a new opportunity happened. Interferon had been discovered in 1957 and thought to prevent virus infection. In November 1978, Swanson signed a confidential letter of intent with Hoffmann – La Roche and a formal agreement in January 1980. They were also lucky: “Heyneker and a colleague attended a scientific meeting in which the speaker – to everyone’s astonishment given the field’s intense competitiveness – projected a slide of a partial sequence of fibroblast interferon. They telephoned the information to Goeddel, who instantly relay the sequence order to Crea. […] Crea started to construct the required probes. […] Goeddel constructed a “library” of thousands upon thousands of bacterial cells, seeking ones with interferon gene. Using the partial sequence Pestka retrieved, Goeddel cloned full-length DNA sequences for both fibroblast and leukocyte interferon. […] In June 1980, after filing patent protection, Genentech announced the production in collaboration with Roche.” [Page 145] Genentech could consider going public and after another fight between Perkins and Swanson, Genentech decided to do so. Perkins had seen that the year 1980 was perfect for financing biotech companies through a public offering but Swanson saw the challenges this would mean for a young company with nearly no revenue or product.
New role models
The 1980-81 period would see the creation of a fleet of entrepreneurial biology-based companies – Amgen, Chiron, Calgene, Molecular Genetics, Integrated Genetics, and firms of a lesser note – all inspired by Genentech’s example of a new organizational model for biological and pharmaceutical research. Before the IPO window closed in 1983, eleven biotech companies in addition to Genentech and Cetus, had gone public*. […] But not only institutions were transformed. Genentech’s IPO transformed Herb Boyer, the small-town guy of blue-collar origins, into molecular biology’s first industrial multimillionaire. For admiring scientists laboring at meager academic salaries in relative obscurity, he became a conspicuous inspiration for their own research might be reoriented and their reputation enhanced. If unassuming Herb – just a guy from Pittsburgh, as a colleague observed – could found a successful company with all the rewards and renown that entailed, why couldn’t they? [Page 161]
*: According to one source, the companies staging IPO were Genetic Systems, Ribi Immunochem, Genome Therapeutics, Centocor, Bio-Technology General, California Biotechnology, Immunex, Amgen, Biogen, Chiron, and Immunomedics. (Robbins-Roth, From Alchemy To Ipo: The Business Of Biotechnology)
Following these three posts, I might write a fourth one about academic licenses in the biotechnology if and when I find some time…
I have to admit I had never heard of the Bancroft Library’s website (http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/pro...) for the Program in Bioscience and Biotechnology Studies, “which centerpiece is a continually expanding oral history collection on bioscience and biotechnology [with ] in-depth, fully searchable interviews with basic biological scientists from numerous disciplines; with scientists, executives, attorneys, and others from the biotechnology industry.”
The invention of new research and business practices over a very short period
Swanson was captivated: “This idea [of genetic engineering] is absolutely fantastic; it is revolutionary; it will change the world; it’s the most important thing I have ever heard.” [… But Swanson was nearly alone.] “Cetus was not alone in its hesitation regarding the industrial application of recombinant DNA technology. Pharmaceutical and chemical corporations, conservative institutions at heart, also had reservations.” [Page 32] “Whatever practical applications I could see for recombinant DNA… were five to ten years away, and, therefore, there was no rush to get started, from a scientific point of view.” [Page 32] “I always maintain” Boyer reminisced, “that the best attribute we had was our naïveté… I think if we had known about all the problems we were going to encounter, we would have thought twice about starting… Naïveté was the extra added ingredient in biotechnology.” [Page 36]
The book shows the importance of scientific collaborations. Not just Boyer at UCSF but for example with a hospital in Los Angeles. A license was signed with City of Hope Hospital with a 2% royalty on sales on products based on the licensed technology. “[…] negotiated an agreement between Genentech and City of Hope that gave Genentech exclusive ownership of any and all patents based on the work and paid the medical center a 2 percent royalty on sales of products arising from the research.” [Page 57]
Even if in 2000, City of Hope had received $285M in royalties, it was not happy with the outcome. After many trials, the California Supreme Court in 2008 awarded another $300M to City of Hope. So the book shows that these collaborations gave also much legal litigation. [Page 58]
In a few years, Genentech could synthesize somatostatin, insulin, human growth hormone and interferon. It is fascinating to read how intense, uncertain, stressful these years were for Swanson, Perkins, Boyer and the small group of Genentech employees and academic partners (Goeddel, Kleid, Heyneker, Seeburg, Riggs, Itakura, Crea), in part because of the emerging competition from other start-ups (Biogen, Chiron) and academic labs (Harvard, UCSF).
“On August 25, 1978 – four days after Goeddel’s insulin chain-joining feat – the two parties signed a multimillion-dollar, twenty-year research and development agreement. For an upfront licensing fee of $500,000, Lilly got what it wanted: exclusive worldwide rights to manufacture and market human insulin using Genentech’s technology. Genentech was to receive 6 percent royalties and City of Hope 2 percent royalties on product sales.” [Page 94] They managed to negotiate a contractual condition limiting Lilly’s use of Genentech’s engineered bacteria to the manufacture of recombinant insulin alone. The technology would remain Genentech’s property, or so they expected. As it turned out, the contract, and that clause in particular, became a basis for a prolonged litigation. In 1990, the courts awarded Genentech over $150 million in a decision determining that Lilly had violated the 1978 contract by using a component of Genentech’s insulin technology in making its own human growth hormone product. [Page 95] Perkins believed that the 8 percent royalty rate was unusually high, at a time when royalties on pharmaceutical products were along the lines of 3 or 4 percent. “It was kind of exorbitant royalty, but we agreed anyway – Lilly was anxious to be first (with human insulin)” […]The big company – small company template that Genentech and Lilly promulgated in molecular biology would become a prominent organizational form in a coming biotechnology industry. [Page 97]
The invention of a new culture
Young as Swanson was, he kept everyone focused on product-oriented research. He continued to have scant tolerance for spending time, effort, and money on research not tied directly to producing marketable products. “We were interested in making something usable that you could turn into a drug, inject in humans, take to clinical trials.” A few year before his premature death, Swanson remarked, “I think one of the things I did best in those days was to keep us very focused on making a product.“ His goal-directed management style differed markedly from that of Genentech’s close competitors. [Page 129]
But at the same time Boyer would guarantee a high quality research level by encouraging employees to write the best possible scientific articles. This guaranteed the reputation of Genentech in the academic world.
A culture was taking shape at Genentech that had no exact counterpart in industry or academia. The high-tech firms in Silicon Valley and along Route 128 in Massachusetts shared its emphasis on innovation, fast-moving research, and intellectual property creation and protection. But the electronics and computer industries, and every other industrial sector for that matter, lacked the close, significant, and sustained ties with university research that Genentech drew upon from the start and that continue to define the biotechnology industry of today. Virtually every element in the company’s research endeavor – from its scientists to its intellectual and technological foundations – had originated in decade upon decade of accumulated basic-science knowledge generated in academic labs. […] At Boyer’s insistence, the scientists were encouraged to publish and engage in the wide community of science. [Page 131]
But academic values had to accommodate corporate realities: at Swanson’s insistence, research was to lead to strong patents, marketable products, and profit. Genentech’s culture was in short a hybrid of academic values brought in line with commercial objectives and practices. [Page 132]
Swanson was the supportive but insistent slave driver, urging on employees beyond their perceived limits: “Bob wanted everything. He would say, If you don’t have more things on your plate than you can accomplish, then you’re not trying hard enough. He wanted you to have a large enough list that you couldn’t possibly get everything done, and yet he wanted you to try.” […] Fledging start-ups pitted against pharmaceutical giants could compete mainly by being more innovative, aggressive, and fleet of foot. Early Genentech had those attributes in spades. Swanson expected – demanded – a lot of everyone. His attitude was as Roberto Crea recalled: “Go get it; be there first; we have to beat everybody else… We were small, undercapitalized, and relatively unknown to the world. We had to perform better than anybody else to gain legitimacy in the new industry. Once we did, we wanted to maintain leadership.” […] As Perkins said “Bob would never be accused of lacking a sense of urgency. “ […] Even Ullrich, despite European discomfort with raucous American behavior, admitted to being seduced by Genentech’s unswervingly committed, can-do culture. [Page 133]
New exit strategies
Initially Kleiner thought Genentech would be acquired by a major pharma company. It was just a question of when. He approached Johnson and Johnson and “floated the idea of a purchase price of $80 million. The offer fell flat. Fred Middleton [Genentech’s VP of finance], present at the negotiations, speculated that J&J didn’t have “a clue about what to do with this [recombinant DNA] technology – certainly didn’t know what it was worth. They couldn’t fit it in a Band-Aid mold”. J&J executives were unsure how to value Genentech, there being no standard for comparison or history of earnings.” [Page 140]
Perkins and Swanson made one more attempt to sell Genentech. Late in 1979, Perkins, Swanson, Kiley and Middleton boarded a plane for Indianapolis to meet with Eli Lilly’s CEO and others in top management. Perkins suggested a selling price of $100 million. Middleton’s view is that Lilly was hamstrung by a conservative “not invented here” mentality, an opinion supported by the drug firm’s reputation for relying primarily on internal research and only reluctantly on outside contracts. The company’s technology was too novel, too experimental, too unconventional for a conservative pharmaceutical industry to adopt whole-heartedly. [Page 141]
When Genentech successfully developed interferon, a new opportunity happened. Interferon had been discovered in 1957 and thought to prevent virus infection. In November 1978, Swanson signed a confidential letter of intent with Hoffmann – La Roche and a formal agreement in January 1980. They were also lucky: “Heyneker and a colleague attended a scientific meeting in which the speaker – to everyone’s astonishment given the field’s intense competitiveness – projected a slide of a partial sequence of fibroblast interferon. They telephoned the information to Goeddel, who instantly relay the sequence order to Crea. […] Crea started to construct the required probes. […] Goeddel constructed a “library” of thousands upon thousands of bacterial cells, seeking ones with interferon gene. Using the partial sequence Pestka retrieved, Goeddel cloned full-length DNA sequences for both fibroblast and leukocyte interferon. […] In June 1980, after filing patent protection, Genentech announced the production in collaboration with Roche.” [Page 145] Genentech could consider going public and after another fight between Perkins and Swanson, Genentech decided to do so. Perkins had seen that the year 1980 was perfect for financing biotech companies through a public offering but Swanson saw the challenges this would mean for a young company with nearly no revenue or product.
New role models
The 1980-81 period would see the creation of a fleet of entrepreneurial biology-based companies – Amgen, Chiron, Calgene, Molecular Genetics, Integrated Genetics, and firms of a lesser note – all inspired by Genentech’s example of a new organizational model for biological and pharmaceutical research. Before the IPO window closed in 1983, eleven biotech companies in addition to Genentech and Cetus, had gone public*. […] But not only institutions were transformed. Genentech’s IPO transformed Herb Boyer, the small-town guy of blue-collar origins, into molecular biology’s first industrial multimillionaire. For admiring scientists laboring at meager academic salaries in relative obscurity, he became a conspicuous inspiration for their own research might be reoriented and their reputation enhanced. If unassuming Herb – just a guy from Pittsburgh, as a colleague observed – could found a successful company with all the rewards and renown that entailed, why couldn’t they? [Page 161]
*: According to one source, the companies staging IPO were Genetic Systems, Ribi Immunochem, Genome Therapeutics, Centocor, Bio-Technology General, California Biotechnology, Immunex, Amgen, Biogen, Chiron, and Immunomedics. (Robbins-Roth, From Alchemy To Ipo: The Business Of Biotechnology)
Following these three posts, I might write a fourth one about academic licenses in the biotechnology if and when I find some time…
October 4, 2018
I found "Genentech" to be informative and interesting and extremely well-written.
I feel like Sally Hughes did a great job of contextualizing Genentech's early founding story, providing valuable insight on the political, social, academic, and legal/patent environment at the time. I feel like the book spent the perfect amount of time on each topic area (the personalities behind Genentech, the impact of government policy, the tension between academia and science) without rambling or going into excessive detail.
The book presented a balanced, thoughtful picture of Genentech that isn't overly rosy or overly cynical. I felt like Sally Hughes told the unbiased truth. For example, she points out when Bob Swanson was overselling Genentech during its early stages. She notes that although Genentech experienced great success up to its IPO in 1980, it made many mistakes later on and faced many challenges.
I also liked that Sally highlighted various disagreements between team members, for example when Herb Boyer and Bob Swanson argued about whether to allow Genentech scientists to publish.
For anyone interested in biotech or start-ups in general, this was a fascinating book.
I feel like Sally Hughes did a great job of contextualizing Genentech's early founding story, providing valuable insight on the political, social, academic, and legal/patent environment at the time. I feel like the book spent the perfect amount of time on each topic area (the personalities behind Genentech, the impact of government policy, the tension between academia and science) without rambling or going into excessive detail.
The book presented a balanced, thoughtful picture of Genentech that isn't overly rosy or overly cynical. I felt like Sally Hughes told the unbiased truth. For example, she points out when Bob Swanson was overselling Genentech during its early stages. She notes that although Genentech experienced great success up to its IPO in 1980, it made many mistakes later on and faced many challenges.
I also liked that Sally highlighted various disagreements between team members, for example when Herb Boyer and Bob Swanson argued about whether to allow Genentech scientists to publish.
For anyone interested in biotech or start-ups in general, this was a fascinating book.
February 14, 2021
I personally enjoyed reading this book. I learned about the stories of the people behind Genentech. I am inspired by the pioneers of the biotech industry and am thankful to Boyer and Swanson for paving the way for others to follow. This book has changed the way I thought about biotechnology and has reignited my passion for the basic sciences.
January 2, 2024
This is the biography of the world's first biotechnology company Genentech. It was founded in 1976 by venture capitalist Robert A. Swanson and biochemist Herbert Boyer. At times the book was a bit too hard to read trough - was boring, with too many names or too technological language.
The book starts with the lifes’ stories of Boyer and Stanley Norman Cohen. Boyer is considered to be a pioneer in the field of recombinant DNA technology. The technology entails recombining, joining pieces of DNA in a test tube, cloning, creating identical copies of DNA in a bacterium or other organism and expressing the DNA code as a protein or RNA molecule. This was invented in 1973, when Boyer and Cohen demonstrated that restriction enzymes could be used as "scissors" to cut DNA fragments. While Cohen returned to the laboratory in academia, Swanson contacted Boyer to found the company.
In 1977 was achieved the first milestone project that Boyer worked with Arthur Riggs and Keiichi Itakura in order to express the first human gene in bacteria was the hormone somatostatin. But the real goal was human insulin. They were joined by David Goeddel and Dennis Kleid and the group achieved human insulin in 1978. Followed multiple other projects and scandals. It was interesting to read about the competing different universities and the business in the race of recombinant DNA.
It was interesting to also learn about Boyer’s knowledge of both business and science, allowing him to create unique culture in Genentech. This gave him the perfect balance to understand and handle the scientists and also business needs.
The book starts with the lifes’ stories of Boyer and Stanley Norman Cohen. Boyer is considered to be a pioneer in the field of recombinant DNA technology. The technology entails recombining, joining pieces of DNA in a test tube, cloning, creating identical copies of DNA in a bacterium or other organism and expressing the DNA code as a protein or RNA molecule. This was invented in 1973, when Boyer and Cohen demonstrated that restriction enzymes could be used as "scissors" to cut DNA fragments. While Cohen returned to the laboratory in academia, Swanson contacted Boyer to found the company.
In 1977 was achieved the first milestone project that Boyer worked with Arthur Riggs and Keiichi Itakura in order to express the first human gene in bacteria was the hormone somatostatin. But the real goal was human insulin. They were joined by David Goeddel and Dennis Kleid and the group achieved human insulin in 1978. Followed multiple other projects and scandals. It was interesting to read about the competing different universities and the business in the race of recombinant DNA.
It was interesting to also learn about Boyer’s knowledge of both business and science, allowing him to create unique culture in Genentech. This gave him the perfect balance to understand and handle the scientists and also business needs.
January 30, 2021
Didn't quite finish it. While it's interesting, it seemed quite biased and got quite repetitive.
August 19, 2021
Gran relato de los primeros años de Genentech, empresa de biotecnología que a partir de investigación en ciencia básica (Boyer y Cohen en la unión de sus trabajos en el uso de enzimas de restricción y plásmidos), fue pionera en el uso de tecnología recombinante con hitos como obtener la primera aprobación de la FDA de Humulin (la primer insulina recombinante de uso humano) o ser la primer empresa en usar tecnología de ADN recombinante en cotizar en la bolsa (1980).
En los 70s (y en cierta proporción aún hoy) se respiraba un aire inhóspito en torno a académicos involucrándose en los bionegocios y una mezcla de situaciones políticas, sociales, económicas y científicas, moldearon y estimularon los retos y el crecimiento de Genentech.
En los 70s (y en cierta proporción aún hoy) se respiraba un aire inhóspito en torno a académicos involucrándose en los bionegocios y una mezcla de situaciones políticas, sociales, económicas y científicas, moldearon y estimularon los retos y el crecimiento de Genentech.
February 11, 2020
Very interesting and fascinating story about Genentech and startups in general. I especially like Boyer's philosophy about research and attracting talent. I think it should be a must-read for people in pharma and biotech also given the fact that Genentech is still a very innovative company and has contributed significantly to new modalities and drugs that have made a huge difference for many patients.
July 4, 2021
As someone who works in the healthcare/pharma/biotech industry, I am always fascinated to learn about the history of how companies and this industry have begun and evolved over time. I always like to look back and see if I can learn from the early stages of where this industry started to have appreciation and context for the work that is being performed today.
Genentech/Roche is a large pharmaceutical company now and is a huge success, but it was not always that way. This book explores the early stages of Genentech's creation, the race to use recombinant DNA, and the beginnings of the biotech industry. A really beautifully written tale by Hughes, she covers the intricate world of early on biotech, spanning the science, business, regulations, and other politics involved in this world. A bit slow at times, but as a whole a great read with great characters.
Genentech/Roche is a large pharmaceutical company now and is a huge success, but it was not always that way. This book explores the early stages of Genentech's creation, the race to use recombinant DNA, and the beginnings of the biotech industry. A really beautifully written tale by Hughes, she covers the intricate world of early on biotech, spanning the science, business, regulations, and other politics involved in this world. A bit slow at times, but as a whole a great read with great characters.
October 18, 2021
The founding of Genentech stands symbol for the start of biotech - this for both the discipline as the start-up culture associated with it. Unfortunately, this book discusses only the period until the IPO of Genentech in 1980. The period after the IPO - in which Genentech came into financial and business turmoil - which eventually led to a bail-out in 1990 is not described in this book. Nor the period after 1990 whereby Arthur Levinson turned around the company, creating a 10oB+ USD company.
This read however is still very interesting and relevant. Especially the part whereby Genentech was able to get from idea to start-up. The IPO process itself was not so interesting.
All-in-all, this book deserves a score of 3.5 (4 stars). This book could be made way more relevant if it were updated with the period 1980-today.
This read however is still very interesting and relevant. Especially the part whereby Genentech was able to get from idea to start-up. The IPO process itself was not so interesting.
All-in-all, this book deserves a score of 3.5 (4 stars). This book could be made way more relevant if it were updated with the period 1980-today.
September 19, 2021
Great book cataloguing the rise of the first major molecular biology startup, Genentech, up to its IPO in 1980. Overall, reads at times like a corporate history but does cover the legal quandaries (midnight raids on UCSF labs where some of the genentech employees worked for instance) that they had. At other times, the book seems to dwell heavily on how this company’s emergence (along with reduced capital gains taxes and the Chakrabarty case allowing for patents on living creations) seems to mark the end of the separation of biology academia and industry. Seems a bit self-celebratory, but the argument sort of holds.
If you have an interest in biotech history or the race to mass produce human insulin, this is a good book to check out.
If you have an interest in biotech history or the race to mass produce human insulin, this is a good book to check out.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 4, 2023
Being from the field of Biotechnology myself, it was exciting to read about the birth of the field, reinvention of pharmaceutical industry, and the making of the biggest biotechnology company of the world. Genentech was instrumental in shaping a lot of industry practices that are followed today.
Even though the lawsuits of City of Hope, UC, Eli Lilly, Mr. Swanson's exit, Roche stepping in, and the financial troubles faced by the company after the interferon failure are briefly mentioned I wish there was some more depth there as I am sure those were instrumental in shaping Genentech and the Biotechnology industry as well. I would have learned to read and learn more about the impact of these events.
Even though the lawsuits of City of Hope, UC, Eli Lilly, Mr. Swanson's exit, Roche stepping in, and the financial troubles faced by the company after the interferon failure are briefly mentioned I wish there was some more depth there as I am sure those were instrumental in shaping Genentech and the Biotechnology industry as well. I would have learned to read and learn more about the impact of these events.
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January 17, 2024This was an interesting look into the rise of this company. It is very interesting to see the perspective on recombinant DNA technology from 40 years ago to now. It's so common and widespread in labs that it is really surprising that there was so much upset previously, with the Supreme Court microbe patent case, regulations and restrictions trying to pass through Congress, etc. There were so many things I learned about the development of the molecular biology field. I think it is important to know the history when using this type of technology every day, like I do, so this was a great read for me.
January 9, 2021
This is a nice good that detailedly introduces the development of Genentech: including the initial experiments, creation of company (business plan and recruitment), collaboration with other big companies, products grinding, and finally public offering. It's amazing that the author really captured the thoughts and words during the whole process and let us better feel the ups and downs, and understand the whole procedures. The work ethics, determination, focus of human-centered products, respect to research showed by Boyer and Bob are truly impressive to me.
October 11, 2019
I enjoy reading stories about how persons or companies struggle along the way to succeed like Genentech or fail like Theranos. This kind of stories helps me to think about my personal experience from another point of view.
Having said this, I read this book from cover to cover eagerly. Amaze by how Genentech made it work. Also, the importance of the need for fluent communication between researchers and business and how to overcome difficult times.
Having said this, I read this book from cover to cover eagerly. Amaze by how Genentech made it work. Also, the importance of the need for fluent communication between researchers and business and how to overcome difficult times.
May 16, 2021
Detailed read on the history of Genentech from its most early foundation centered around conversations at a tavern to its historic IPO. Very enjoyable read that expanded my knowledge on the early days of restriction enzyme molecular biology. Genentech set the stage for the burgeoning biotech industry in the U.S. Overall it is a great read for anyone in the biomedical field, tech field or interested in translating biological findings into commercial products
October 31, 2022
Amazing read, read in one weekend! Details the history forming the first ever biotech company the backlash they faced using university scientists in their company, the hurdles to marketing their own products, and how Genentech paved the way for all the other biotech companies to follow suit (ex: Amgen). Highly recommend reading this with Science Lessons, which is about founding biotech company Amgen and how they learned from Genentech.
July 22, 2021
Pop history of Genentech and how it lead to private biotech company boom.
Based in South SF, Genentech combined the cultural practices of tech companies, academia and corporate world to manufacture insulin from bacteria using DNA cloning.
An upstart company, a cool local story.
Based in South SF, Genentech combined the cultural practices of tech companies, academia and corporate world to manufacture insulin from bacteria using DNA cloning.
An upstart company, a cool local story.
April 5, 2024
Interesting read
A lot of cool and previously unknown (to me) information. Though the author did touch upon some of the later years of Genentech, I would have enjoyed if they had finished the book at a more present state of the company.
A lot of cool and previously unknown (to me) information. Though the author did touch upon some of the later years of Genentech, I would have enjoyed if they had finished the book at a more present state of the company.
December 20, 2017
Game changer
April 8, 2019
Very engaging, finished it in one day. History of Genentech told in an exciting manner.
August 4, 2019
Good book for anyone interested in biotech. Took me a while to read, as does most non-fiction.
November 4, 2019
great read. genesis of biotech industrial revolution.
December 31, 2019
Nice brief histroy of Genentech and the start of the biotech sector.
October 16, 2020
a bit dry
August 11, 2021
2.5/5
Interesting story, good to learn about how research and private markets combined for the first time. Dry and kind of painful to get through
Interesting story, good to learn about how research and private markets combined for the first time. Dry and kind of painful to get through
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October 19, 2021new whip like a racist
December 21, 2021
A good read for anyone interested in the biotech industry, but not a thriller
December 27, 2021
Genentech started w a focus on DNA services and mass producing human growth hormone and insulin
-Scientists at most universities consult on the side
-Scientists at most universities consult on the side
February 15, 2022
Game-changer IPO with light fast growth. A successful story of the academic entrepreneur survived and thrived in diverse complex dev stages.
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