Genentech, a biotechnology company founded in 1976 and headquartered in South San Francisco, CA, has focused its drug discovery efforts on therapies that address significant unmet medical needs.

Genentech manufactures and commercializes multiple biotherapeutics for serious or life-threatening medical conditions.

The company is majority owned by Roche, which co-promotes many of its biologics. Genentech's leading products are:

Avastin (bevacizumab). Avastin is for use in combination with chemotherapy for treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer or in combination with chemotherapy for treatment of patients with unresectable, locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer.

Herceptin (Trastuzumab). Herceptin is for use alone or in combination with chemotherapy for certain patients with metastatic breast cancer and as part of a treatment regimen together with chemotherapy for patients with HER2-positive, node-positive breast cancer.

Rituxan (Rituximab). Rituxan is used in a variety of treatment regimens for patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Rituxan also is used for patients with moderately- to severely-active rheumatoid arthritis who have not had success with a TNF-blocker.

Tarceva (erlotinib). Tarceva is used for treatment of patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer after failure of at least one prior chemotherapy regimen, and also is used in combination with chemotherapy for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer.

Raptiva (efalizumab). Raptiva is used for the treatment of chronic moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis in adults.

Xolair (Omalizumab). Xolair is used for treatment of moderate-to-severe persistent asthma in adults and adolescents.

Activase (Alteplase, recombinant). Activase is a tissue-plasminogen activator to dissolve blood clots, and is used for treating patients with acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), acute massive pulmonary embolism (blood clots in the lungs), and acute ischemic stroke (brain attack) within the first three hours of symptom onset.

Lucentis (ranibizumab). Lucentis is a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inhibitor used to treat wet age-related macular degeneration.

Nutropin (somatropin). Nutropin is a human growth hormone for treating growth hormone deficiency, for treating growth failure due to chronic renal insufficiency prior to kidney transplantation, and for treating short stature associated with Turner syndrome.

Pulmozyme (dornase alfa, recombinant). Pulmozyme is used in treatment of cystic fibrosis patients to improve pulmonary function.

TNKase (Tenecteplase). TNKase is a single-dose clot-busting agent for the treatment of acute myocardial infarction.

*Information above taken from materials provided by Genentech.