Genentech Inc. ( ), a composite of Genetic Engineering Technology, Inc., is a leading biotechnology corporation, which was founded in 1976 by venture capitalist Robert A. Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert W. Boyer. "Genentech was founded by venture capitalist Robert A. Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert W. Boyer. After a fateful meeting in 1976, the two decided to start the first biotechnology company, Genentech." It is considered to have founded the biotechnology industry. One of its founders, Boyer, is considered to be one of the pioneers in the field of recombinant DNA technology (the company's ticker symbol reflects Boyer's contribution to the field). Boyer with a fellow researcher, Stanley Norman Cohen, in 1973, invented recombinant genetic engineering, by realizing 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, Robert 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 insulin in 1978.
Currently (2006), Genentech employs more than 10,000 people and Arthur D. Levinson is the Chairman and CEO. The Swiss pharmaceutical conglomerate Hoffmann-La Roche owns the majority of Genentech shares http://online.wsj.com/google_login.html?url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB114720225204948046.html%3Fmod%3Dgooglenews_wsj.
