Genentech, a mash-up of “genetic engineering technology.” It began making genetically engineered drugs and, in August 1978, blasted into hypergrowth when it won a bet-the-company race to make a synthetic version of insulin to treat diabetes. Until then, one pound of insulin required eight thousand pounds of pancreas glands ripped from more than twenty-three thousand pigs or cows. Genentech’s success with insulin not only changed the lives of diabetics (and a lot of pigs and cows); it lifted the entire biotechnology industry into orbit.
