Genentech Corporation

Figure 5.1. Cellular apoptosis. Various critical cellular apoptotic integrated processes are schematically shown. From membrane, to mitochondria, and caspase cascades, and the nucleus all become involved. The ceU is blebbing at bottom right in the process of programmed cell death. (Image acquired with permission from from BioOncology of Genentech Corporation (www.biooncology.com.) See insert for color representation of this figure.

The three monoclonal antibodies approved, noted in Table 23.1, in the last 7 years for treatment of patients with cancer include Alemtuzumab (Campath M) (Genzyme Corporation, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.), Cetuzimab (Erbitux ) (ImClone Corporation, Branchburg, NJ, U.S.A.), and bevacizumab (Avastin ) (Genentech, South San Francisco, CA, U.S.A.). 

Immunex Corporation and Genentech, Inc. join forces to develop TRAIL/Apo2L in cancer. 

Genentech remained, however, a shell corporation until 1978, when after acquiring a small building and a staff of five, it signed in August and September its first research contracts. One was with Eli Lilly to develop a human insulin in E coli bacteria (Chapter 7). The other was with a Swedish firm, Kabi, to deliver a human growth hormone, hGH. ... 

One of the solutions to this problem, Dr Pisano suggests, amounts to a call to bring back the Genentech model, at least as that company exists today. In such a quasi-pubhc corporation, big-pharma ownership of the majority of a biotech company s stock assures financial stabihty and a long-term outlook while a hands-off approach allows creativity and... 

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