I was doing research for another project I was working when I somehow found myself reading up on what can be considered one of the world’s best companies to work for and the 1st real biotech company in the world, Genentech.
Genentech has been consistently ranked as among the best companies to work for in the world by Fortune magazine for over 15 years. In 2006 it was rated #1.
I would also like to present the Awards and recognitions section from the Wikipedia article on Genentech.
Currently the company of Genentech owns the website www.gene.com (very cute and clever).
From the wikipedia article on Genentech…
It states that Genentech was created in 1976 by a VC Robert A. Swanson and a biochemist Dr. Herbert Boyer. The Swiss health-care conglomerate Roche AG owns Genentech after a massive buyout a few years ago.
Under the research section…
Genentech scientists in these various areas of expertise currently focus their efforts on five disease categories:
- Oncology
- Immunology
- Tissue Growth and Repair
- Neuroscience
- Infectious Disease.
If we go to the product pipiline section, we can see that the 2nd product to ever come out, in 1985 by of Genentech was human recombinant human growth hormone (rhHGH)
- 1985 – Protropin (somatrem) – Supplementary growth hormone for children with growth hormone deficiency (ceased manufacturing 2004).
From the source Money.CNN.com it would seem that the first product, Insulin, was introduced very early on…“Within two years Genentech had concocted human insulin, which in 1982 became the first biotech drug to go to market….”
The fact is that when children suffer from the disorder of being deficient in growth hormone, they develop extreme short stature and stunted growth. The way that most endocrinologists would suggest to not allow that to happen is to start the child on growth hormone therapy will will be where the kid gets a injection of growth hormones a few times each week for many years (usually until they are close to bone maturity)
However, it seems that from a article posted on the Genentech website it suggests that the product protropin was actually the first one that really got down the pipeline. From the article “25th Anniversary of First Product Approval” which was an article written in Oct. 28, 2010…
“Twenty-five years ago, on October 18, 1985, Genentech received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its first product, a growth hormone for children with growth hormone deficiency. It was the first recombinant biotech drug to be manufactured and marketed by a biotechnology company…”
It would turn out that for one of the founders of Genentech, he found out that his son was growing too slow which was caused from growth hormone deficiency. His son was going to end up short! and that was when Dr. Herbert W. Boyer decided to take action….
From the Genentech webpage…
“I got an idea for [the commercialization of recombinant DNA technology] when my oldest son was tested for growth hormone. He was on the lower end of the growth curve, and the pediatrician wanted to test his growth hormone levels…It turned out he had normal levels of growth hormone. The pediatrician said that he felt he would grow to an acceptable size based on that, and even though he was in a lower percentile, it was nothing to get too worried about. I didn’t even know that kids were treated with growth hormone to treat dwarfism. I think at the time I may have even told my wife, ‘You know, we could make human growth hormone; all we have to do is isolate the gene.’” — Herbert W. Boyer, Ph.D., Co-Founder of Genentech
“….considering Genentech’s manufacturing plant was new and Protopin growth hormone was the first commercial product to come out of the facility…. Genentech’s Hallelujah Chorus heralded the FDA approval of Protropin growth hormone. In an atmosphere of great celebration, Genentech entered a new era as a biotechnology company marketing its own product.
Genentech’s Protropin® (somatrem for injection), the first product to be manufactured and marketed by a biotech company,…”
For me this just shows us just how significant the element of height is in our lives. The fact seems to be that it was Protropin, not Insulin which was the first real product created by what some people would call the first and still one of the biggest and best biotech companies in the world, Genentech.
Protropin, a somatropin was developed because the founder realized that his son was going to end up short, and that was when he decided to search for something. It just shows us that when something like short stature means that people we really care about will have a very hard and difficult life, we finally start to take action.
Interesting Fact: I would also like to point out that from the product pipeline, it seems that the 5th product to ever come out of Genetech was ALSO a growth hormone, most likely used to treat short stature. Nutropin would become the successor to protropin.
- 1993 – Nutropin (recombinant somatropin) – Growth hormone for children and adults for treatment before kidney transplant due to chronic renal insufficiency.
Analysis: The thing about chronic renal insufficiency is that it is one of the most common causes for children to develop into short stature. Refer to the PubMed studies below…
- Short stature and chronic renal failure: what concerns children and parents?
- Growth hormone for children with chronic renal failure.
So could it be that Genentech, who has been consistently ranked the BEST IN THE WORLD as a company was created all because of the fact that a son was going to end up short and the father wanted to try to do something to prevent that from happening???