Genentech (C/N)

Genetic Engineering Technology, Inc., or Genentech, is a biotechnology corporation founded by Robert A. Swanson and Dr. Herbert Boyer in 1976. Genentech is considered to have founded the biotechnology industry, and Boyer is considered to be a pioneer in the field of recombinant DNA technology. Boyer worked with Arthur Riggs and Keiichi Itakura and became the first group to successfully express a human gene in bacteria by producing the hormone somatostatin in 1977. Their next major success, this time with the inclusion of David Goeddel and Dennis Kleid, was with synthetic human insulin in 1978. As of February 2011, Genentech employed more than 11,000 people, though the Swiss healthcare company Hoffmann-La Roche came to completely own Genentech on March 26, 2009, after purchasing it for $46.8 billion.