[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 152 (Thursday, September 24, 2026)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E970-E971]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         RECOGNIZING GENENTECH

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. KEVIN MULLIN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 24, 2026

  Mr. MULLIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Genentech, whose 
global headquarters is in my hometown of South San Francisco, on the 
occasion of its 50th anniversary and to honor its profound impact on 
the biotechnology industry, scientific innovation, and the lives of 
patients across the globe.
  As the world's first biotechnology company, Genentech has been an 
industry pioneer since its founding in 1976. The company's 50-year 
history began with a single phone call between venture capitalist 
Robert A. Swanson and biochemist Dr. Herbert W. Boyer. Swanson had 
heard about Boyer's role in the invention of recombinant DNA 
technology, research which would soon prove living cells could be 
programmed to produce life-changing medicines. By the end of the three-
hour conversation, the two had conceived a way to commercialize 
recombinant DNA technology, and Genentech was born. After months of 
experiments, the team of scientists at Genentech successfully 
synthesized somatostatin. Even though the experiment had no commercial 
consequences, it confirmed that recombinant DNA technology could be 
used to make human proteins and established an important precedent at 
the company of letting science lead business. Equipped with new 
knowledge, confidence, and funding, Genentech scientists went on to 
become the first team to synthesize human insulin, medicine that has 
changed millions of lives since.
  In the decades that followed, Genentech continued to lead. Its 
scientists developed the first monoclonal antibody approved in the 
United States for the treatment of cancer, a therapy for non-Hodgkin's 
lymphoma that helped establish antibody-based treatment as a pillar of 
modern oncology. Genentech introduced the original HER2-targeted 
therapy for metastatic breast cancer. In doing so, it launched the 
first therapeutic antibody paired with a required companion diagnostic 
test, an innovation that helped realize the promise of precision 
medicine by ensuring the suitable medication met the correct patient. 
Furthermore, Genentech introduced the first B-cell depleting therapy 
approved for both relapsing and primary progressiVe forms of multiple 
sclerosis, offering hope to patients with a form of the disease that 
had long lacked approved treatment options. The company's legacy of 
firsts reflects Genentech's sustained, decades-long institutional 
commitment to solving problems that others may have judged too 
difficult, too risky, or too small a market to pursue.
  Such commitment continues today at an extraordinary scale. Genentech 
invests $15 billion annually in research and development, representing 
one of the largest R&D budgets in the biotechnology industry. Its 
scientists contribute their experimentation and innovation in five 
therapeutic areas: Oncology-Hematology, Neurology, Ophthalmology, 
Immunology, and Cardiovascular, Renal and Metabolism. Genentech is a 
proud member of the scientific community and is committed to sharing 
its discoveries by encouraging its researchers to publish their 
findings.
  Genentech medicines have received 43 FDA Breakthrough Therapy 
Designations, a distinction reserved for treatments that show 
substantial improvement over existing therapies for serious conditions. 
46 Genentech medicines appear on the World Health Organization's Model 
List of Essential Medicines, the WHO's own register of the medicines 
judged most effective, safe, and necessary within a health system. The 
company has developed more than 40 FDA-approved medicines for serious 
and life-threatening diseases. Today, it sponsors 250 clinical trials 
in the United States with 66 investigational medicines currently in 
development, a pipeline that represents the next generation of 
potential treatments for patients still waiting for better options.

[[Page E971]]

  Scientific breakthroughs only matter if patients can access these 
life-changing therapies. Genentech has a history of sustained 
investment in patient assistance. Over the past 30 years, Genentech has 
helped more than 4 million people through its patient assistance 
programs. In 2025 alone, the company's Commercial Co-pay Assistance 
programs supported 213,000 eligible patients, and Genentech Access 
Solutions helped 320,000 people navigate access issues to obtain the 
medicines they had been prescribed. Similarly, the Genentech Patient 
Foundation has assisted more than 900,000 individuals, including 75,000 
eligible patients who received free medicine through the Foundation in 
2025 alone. Few companies in any industry can point to a four-decade 
record of direct, sustained assistance to patients in need on this 
scale.
  Genentech's footprint in American science and manufacturing is 
substantial and growing. The company has committed $50 billion to 
invest in American infrastructure, supporting the domestic 
manufacturing and research capacity that keeps cutting-edge medicine 
grounded in the United States. Genentech has proudly called South San 
Francisco home since its founding, establishing the city as the 
birthplace of biotechnology.
  Genentech has long maintained that its mission goes beyond the 
laboratory. Since 2017, it has invested more than $230 million in 
education, health access, and community wellbeing. For more than ten 
years, the company has operated Futurelab, a STEM education program 
that reaches 8,000 K-12 students annually in the South San Francisco 
Unified School District, educating and inspiring the next generation of 
American scientists. The company's Genentech Goes to Town program has 
encouraged employees at sites across the country to patronize local 
merchants each fall, an effort that has invested more than 84.8 million 
into more than 300 small businesses.
  Looking to the next 50 years and beyond, Genentech is proving itself 
a role model for its future-minded approach to sustainability and 
embrace of thrilling new technologies. In 2025, the company completed 
its transition to 100 percent sustainable electricity across all its 
sites. Its employees started Green Genes, a grassroots sustainability 
effort aimed at reducing individual carbon footprint by putting more 
everyday environmental habits in place. Genentech is also leading the 
integration of data science and artificial intelligence into their 
innovation and patient care to ensure it remains at the forefront of 
scientific progress, recognizing the technology's potential to 
accelerate Genentech's ability to solve the most pressing health 
challenges in the world.
  Mr. Speaker, Genentech has fundamentally changed the scientific 
field, and the lives of so many patients, for the better. I ask my 
colleagues to join me in recognizing and celebrating Genentech for its 
role in creating the biotechnology industry, for its sustained 
investment in scientific innovation, and for its decades-long 
commitment to the patients and communities it serves.

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