Founded 30 years ago at the dawn of biotech, Genentech is a legend in an industry where companies yearn to do what it does: to make billions of dollars off of novel drugs while remaining true to innovation and science. Unfortunately, it's also a legend being positioned for a fall. That's because the Swiss drug giant Roche, which has owned a majority of Genentech shares since 1990, wants to buy the 44 percent of shares in the company that it does not already hold. Late Thursday, Genentech said it had formed a special committee to evaluate the $89 per-share offer, which many analysts and shareholders believe is too low. At any price, this whopper of a deal could mean an end to Genentech’s distinctive culture of innovation, despite promises from Roche not to meddle. It would also provide more evidence that the days of “Big Biotech” – a relatively small subset of successful companies in an industry that takes years to develop products and to become profitable – are over. Big Biote...
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