Genentech Celebrates 30 Years Of Research

Apr. 5 - KGO (KGO) -- This year means a big birthday for the leader of biotechnology in the Bay Area, Genentech. Those 30 years of research have led to new drugs for cancer, heart attacks and asthma. A look at where biotech could take us in the next 30 years.

Genentech is one of the most visible symbols of what biotech has created -- taking DNA molecules and modifying them in the laboratory to create new drug treatments.

For over 30 years, Genentech has had its successes creating products that treat breast cancer, psoriasis, asthma and heart attacks to name a few.

What created the biotech revolution was the discovery of the DNA double helix, a ladder-like structure. It was Dr. James Watson who received the Nobel Prize in medicine for making that discovery, along with a colleague.

While his pioneering work has led to new drugs, Watson looks to a future when DNA research pinpoints why some people have side-effects to drugs while others don't.

James Watson, Ph.D., 1962 Nobel Prize in medicine: "So it's going to change the focus of medicine. So you'll be able to predict the two percent of the population who will get a side-effect and the drug can still go on the market. Until the past, two percent was enough to throw a drug off the market."

Virtually every medication has side-effects for some people. Genentech is working on that issue.

Arthur Levinson, Ph.D., Genetech Chairman & CEO: "One day we will understand why one person out of a hundred or one person out of a thousand has a very bad reaction, so we don't have to pull an otherwise wonderful drug from the market."

To mark the company's 30th anniversary, Genentech presented Dr. Watson a check for $2.5 million. The money will go toward expanding an archive of early biotech research at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.

What 30 years of biotechnology has underscored is that there are two classes of risk takers -- the venture capitalists who put their money on the line, hoping there will be breakthrough disoveries -- and the scientists who take their entire careers, hoping they'll come through with those breakthroughs.

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