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Mar

12

Swiss pharma Roche buys USA-born & bred Genentech for $47bln


Does anyone else think that this is the kind of corporate transaction that negatively impacts the American brand name?

Genentech is an amazing story and an amazing company, but I would like it to stay an amazing American-owned company. I’m happy for the business that they have such an offer, but here we are in an economic crisis, complaining about outsourcing jobs and manufacturing, as well as importing more than we export, and still, there’s the Genentech sale.

One reason this hits me so hard is that I actually remember when Genentech came into existence in the mid-1970s. My mother was an MB&B researcher, so the field was something I was somewhat familiar with. But what I actually remember the most was learning about research into how cancer forms and the idea that cells have switches that can be turned on or off by different interactions of a whole host of possibilities.  I have several relatives who’ve battled cancer, some who have died, so this area of research has fascinated me for a long time.

And I just thought that, although I knew I wasn’t going to be a scientist, the stuff that they were doing was incredibly gripping.  And I always knew it was on the West Coast.

Here’s a nice history, with timeline, of Genentech’s development and a Wikipedia entry.

What do you think? Businesses live to be sold? But to foreign owners all?

Perhaps the money will be used to create another American original?

I don’t know. Something about it just makes me kind of sad.

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By Jill Miller Zimon at 8:16 am March 12th, 2009 in Business, Economy, Science 

Comments

2 Responses to “Swiss pharma Roche buys USA-born & bred Genentech for $47bln”

  1. 1 Paul on March 12th, 2009 1:45 pm

    I’m all for global free trade as long as the trade agreements are fair and reciprocal. In the case of a foreign entity buying an American concern, we Americans have to realize that we’ve pushed our weight all over the world for years. We set the example of economic colonization in the last half of the 20th century.

    We can’t say it’s not okay for a Swiss company to buy an American concern, yet be okay with the notion of Ford buying Volvo (whether they should have is another question).

    One of the more perverse cases of this: Rolls-Royce Motor Cars is now a subsidiary of BMW, a company which once made aircraft engines used by the Luftwaffe. Don’t you imagine there had to be more than a few Brits who shook their heads at that one.

    PL

  2. 2 Bridget Callahan on March 12th, 2009 3:11 pm

    I think we all need to turn off that patriotic switch in our head when it comes to business. Big businesses are more like miniature countries, or floating islands that have no problems switching back and forth over borders. You know, like Lost. I’ve ceased to even think of companies like that as “American”, since probably a lot of their assets are tied up in the global market.

    Also the name Genentech makes me think of Jurassic Park. Which is neither here nor there.

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