30 captivating facts about a biotech breakthrough
Published 10 December 2013
The modern biotech industry was born when Genentech, now a part of Roche (ticker: RHHBY ) , was founded in 1976. Scientists at the company started a long history of innovation in 1978 by successfully expressing a human gene in bacteria that allowed them to produce human insulin. It became the first genetically engineered human medicine approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1982 with the help of Eli Lilly. There's no denying the amazing early contributions Genentech made to the biotech industry, but things didn't really take off until polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, was invented in 1983.