Word: genentech
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Yielding to Swanson's enthusiasm, Boyer borrowed $500 and joined him in forming a company to exploit the new technology. They dubbed it Genentech (for genetic-engineering technology). As Boyer explains, "He wasn't happy with Boyer & Swanson, and I wasn't happy with Swanson & Boyer." The motives of the two were different. Swanson was 28, with degrees in chemistry and business administration from M.I.T. After several years of seeking out investment opportunities for others, he wanted to show the world he could succeed with a business of his own. Boyer, on the other hand, was interested...
...Genentech's vice president, Boyer pinpointed promising areas of exploitation and, in his words, "made sure that the scientists were being taken care of and their particular value recognized." Boyer did his job extremely well. Today, after less than five years, Genentech probably has the best research facilities in the gene-splicing business (40 Ph.D.s, 65 technicians). It has produced and is testing half a dozen recombinant DNA products, including insulin, human growth hormone and various types of human interferon. Swanson gives Boyer the highest grades: "For an academic, he's got an incredible sense of what...
Boyer now draws only a consultant's fee for his Genentech work, but he has not exactly gone unrewarded. Like Swanson, he owns 925,000 shares of Genentech stock. Last October, when the stock shot up to $89 a share, he was briefly worth more than $80 million. Currently, with the stock at around $43, the figure is down to a mere $40 million or so. Watching the ebb and flow of this paper fortune, Boyer admits: "It's all a little unreal...
...night, he sometimes astonishes the young scientists under him by dropping everything to watch the World Series on TV. He also likes to fish and ski and until a year ago jogged regularly (he has grown chunky since). The only obvious change in Boyer's life-style since Genentech's big splash has been the acquisition of a new champagne-beige Porsche Targa (cost: $40,000). He is married and has two children, but since his sudden riches, he likes to keep them out of the limelight. Even his associates at Genentech do not have his new home...
Although Boyer spends no more than one day a week at Genentech, that involvement has irritated many colleagues. Some will barely talk to him, claiming that he has profited by research done mainly at the university. They believe it is impossible to pursue "pure" research and develop commercial products at the same time. There is even talk that his publicized involvement with Genentech may have cost him a Nobel Prize. But the carping, probably motivated at least in part by jealousy, does not seem to bother Boyer too much. Says he: "If you have a strong conviction that what...