ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the rise of biotechnology companies in the pharmaceutical industry and how the established pharmaceutical companies responded. The Genentech, the first biotechnology firm, was founded by Herbert Boyer and Robert A. Swanson in 1976. At its inception, Genentech was at the center of the industrial emergence, setting a high bar for a biotechnology firm to fund itself while advancing science. Eli Lilly identified the potential of biotechnology and dedicated its focus on recombinant DNA, leading to the creation of the first biotechnology product, human insulin, in 1982, under license from Genentech. Human insulin was only the start of the biotechnology product trend; 16 biotechnology drug candidates were approved by the Food and Drug Administration from 1982 to 1992. The social context of biotechnology companies since their emergence shows how new biotechnology firms often fought against public opinion, social activists, ambitious scientists, and legal entities.
