Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech Free Audiobook Download by Sally Smith Hughes

Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech by Sally Smith Hughes. The story of Genentech, the world's first biotech company. It begins in 1947 when Dr. Robert A.M. Kahn and Dr. Herbert Boyer are trying to find a cure for fighting tuberculosis--a then-fatal lung disease--by studying the tuberculosis bacterium that Kahn found in a patient's throat. They publish their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine, sparking worldwide interest in their research into genetic engineering and biotechnology.

This audiobook tells the story of the creation of Genentech, the biotech company that would become a powerhouse in pharmaceuticals. The book begins with a cautionary tale of how President Nixon had to reject a drug developed by researcher Herbert Boyer because it was deemed too dangerous and would have been expensive. A few years later, boyer developed a drug he believed could help prevent miscarriages, but also was taking an unnecessarily large amount to show its effectiveness. But when he presented his new drug to his boss at BASF, he was told that the company wasn't interested in developing drugs unless they were profitable for them to do so.

John and Francis Church launched Genentech, Inc. in 1976 from their garage in San Francisco. The company initially focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of recombinant DNA molecules.

In this audiobook, Sally Smith Hughes tells the story of Genentech. The company began in Southern California in 1976 by scientist Robert A. Swanson, who is still with the company today. He had a vision of a new drug that would be cheap and effective to treat high blood pressure and heart disease. Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry, Avram Hershko was drafted by Swanson to help develop his idea. It was not until 1982 that they found they had created a new class of drugs called “antihypertensives” that were able to lower blood pressure without causing any significant side effects or affecting kidney function or causing kidney failure.

This audiobook is a fascinating history of how Genentech was created and how the team behind it was able to save hundreds of thousands of lives for the cost of roughly $10,000. It describes how Genentech had its beginnings in 23-year old Francis Collins when he noticed that the company he worked for at the time, Amgen, was having terrible luck with some of their drugs and wanted to find out why. He then moves on to describe how they gained funding from a variety of places including venture capitalists, pharmaceutical companies, National Institutes of Health grant money, and even five percent off sales income by getting biotech companies to work together.

Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech is a biography about scientist, Sally Smith Hughes. Her story spans from the early 1900s to present day and talks about her personal experiences and discoveries that shaped the field of biotechnology. Genentech: The Beginnings of Biotech audiobook download has been given 5 star reviews from listeners on Audible.com.