Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech

Description

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, 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. "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. Review: A fantastic account of the beginnings of biotechnology - It may be fair to say that outsiders - and insiders alike - have always been impressed and fascinated by the output and achievements of Genentech. Sally Hughes' account is full of excellent insights on its genesis, involving a persistent, uncommonly driven and enthusiastic entrepreneur and a perhaps bemused, established research scientist who should have probably won a Noble Prize. Full of entertaining and at times bewildering stories on its progress, it will certainly help people less familiar with research settings get an insider's view on how this field progresses - and what genuine drive focused on outstanding science can lead to. For those familiar with biotechnology and other research areas, it may well be a must. Review: バイオベンチャー創成期の貴重な記録 - 1970年代、経済不調に苦しんでいた米国で、最新の科学技術を産業化する企業形態である「ベンチャー（企業）」が誕生した。アップルなどのITベンチャーの創業物語に関する書籍は多数存在するが、双璧のもう一方であるバイオベンチャーの創業については、広く語られることは少なかったように思われる。本書は、奇しくもアップル創業の6日後の1976年4月7日に設立され、武田薬品をも上回る製薬企業に成長したジェネンテク社の創業の経緯を、多数の客観的資料に基いて著者が第三者の視点でまとめたものである。 本書においては、遺伝子組み換え技術によって生産されたインスリンなどの医薬品化を通じてジェネンテク社が企業として成長し、上場を達成するまでの経緯が、日本人科学者・板倉啓壱博士を含む当事者へのインタビューなどの膨大な資料に基いて記録され、アカデミック独特の思考方法の克服・バイオベンチャーキャピタルからの出資・マイルストンの設定と出口戦略などなど、バイオベンチャーにおいて重要な課題をひとつひとつ乗り越えていく姿が描かれる。記述はあくまで客観的であるが、わずか4年半で創業から上場までを駆け抜けた当事者の葛藤も行間から汲み取ることができる。これらの点で、本書は「バイオベンチャー」を語るときに欠かせない資料となるべき好著である。