Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
concern is an examination of what some of the core components are
that make US biotech so successful. There are arguably two main
factors that determine success in the US industry: the role of the
entrepreneur and exit strategies for venture capital. The following
sections explore the two main explanatory ideas for the success of
the US biotechnology industry.
1.1.1 EntrepreneurialismandtheUSbiotechnologyindustry
According to Genentech's own corporate history San Francisco-based
entrepreneur Robert Swanson heard about the work of Dr Herbert
Boeyer and Stanley Cohen in the new area of recombinant DNA
technology at the University of California, San Francisco, and sold
them the idea that there were potential commercial applications of
their work ('History',
http://www.gene.com
). Genentech was established
in 1976 and fast became one of the world's foremost biotechnology
companies. On going public in 1980 the company raised US$35
million and the stock price nearly tripled within an hour of being on
themarket('Corporatechronology',
http://www.gene.com
).Genentech's
first recombinant DNA product was a synthetic human insulin product
that was licensed to the pharmaceutical company Eli Lily in 1982. In
1985, Genentech marketed human growth protein, the second of their
patented recombinant DNA technologies.
The corporate history of Genentech makes much of the meeting
between an entrepreneurial venture capitalist and an innovative
university scientist. In this model, it is the venture capitalists who are
usually seen as the primary entrepreneurs, namely the ones with the
vision to see a successful future. This is also the classical economist's
model of economic growth, with the entrepreneur driving business
cycles through being able to develop opportunities for market entry
where others have not (Sweezy, 1943).
Capitalizing on the idea of matching venture capital with scientific
innovation, technology transfer offices have been established at
universities and other research institutions around the world as a
means of structuring and supporting the process of entrepreneurialism
