Robert A Swanson

The Swiss owner of pharmaceutical giant F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. surprised the health-care industry Friday with an agreement to invest $2.1 billion in Genentech and obtain a 60% stake in the pioneering biotechnology firm. Industry observers embraced the deal as a savvy move for both companies that could prove to be a model for others. It provides the Swiss concern, Roche Holding Ltd., access to a large pipeline of biotech products and a sizable U.S. sales force.

Robert A. Swanson, co-founder and pioneering leader of Genentech Inc., which as one of the first and most successful companies in the burgeoning biotechnology industry developed human insulin and human growth hormone, has died. Swanson, a financial wizard with a chemistry degree who left Genentech in 1996, died Monday of brain cancer at his home in Hillsborough, a San Francisco suburb. He was 52. Most recently, Swanson had been chairman of the board of Tularik Inc.

G. Kirk Raab and several other executives at San Francisco-based Genentech won big when the company merged with Roche Holdings last year. When Roche bought 60% of Genentech's stock, it also purchased unexercised stock options from executives. Raab earned $6.3 million on the deal. Robert Swanson, also of Genentech, got $4.5 million for not exercising his stock options.

G. Kirk Raab and several other executives at San Francisco-based Genentech won big when the company merged with Roche Holdings last year. When Roche bought 60% of Genentech's stock, it also purchased unexercised stock options from executives. Raab earned $6.3 million on the deal. Robert Swanson, also of Genentech, got $4.5 million for not exercising his stock options.

Robert A. Swanson, co-founder and pioneering leader of Genentech Inc., which as one of the first and most successful companies in the burgeoning biotechnology industry developed human insulin and human growth hormone, has died. Swanson, a financial wizard with a chemistry degree who left Genentech in 1996, died Monday of brain cancer at his home in Hillsborough, a San Francisco suburb. He was 52. Most recently, Swanson had been chairman of the board of Tularik Inc.

Genentech Inc., a major bioengineering firm, on Thursday named G. Kirk Raab president and chief operating officer. The latter is a new position. Raab, 49, has a wide background with pharmaceutical companies, most recently at Abbott Laboratories, where he was president and chief operating officer. The move signals the company's shift from pure bioengineering research to marketing and manufacturing of products derived from so-called recombinant DNA technology. As president, Raab succeeds Robert A.

San Francisco-based First Nationwide Holdings Inc., the parent company of First Nationwide Bank, received approval from the Office of Thrift Supervision for its purchase of Los Angeles-based CalFed Bancorp Inc. First Nationwide announced plans in July to buy CalFed for $1.2 billion in cash. . . . South San Francisco-based Genentech Inc. said Robert A. Swanson, founder of the biotechnology company, will retire as chairman at the end of the month. . . .

The Swiss owner of pharmaceutical giant F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. surprised the health-care industry Friday with an agreement to invest $2.1 billion in Genentech and obtain a 60% stake in the pioneering biotechnology firm. Industry observers embraced the deal as a savvy move for both companies that could prove to be a model for others. It provides the Swiss concern, Roche Holding Ltd., access to a large pipeline of biotech products and a sizable U.S. sales force.

Shareholders of biotechnology pioneer Genentech voted overwhelmingly Friday to approve the company's $2.1-billion merger with Roche Holding, a Swiss pharmaceutical giant, despite last-ditch efforts by disgruntled longtime investors to derail the plan. At the end of a rancorous annual meeting in Millbrae, south of San Francisco, the company said 97% of those voting favored the deal.

Genentech won a skirmish in its global battle to protect its genetically engineered heart attack drug from direct competition Tuesday when the U.S. Patent Office awarded the company a patent covering the technology for its production. This was the second major patent awarded Genentech this year for TPA, which has been touted as the first blockbuster drug from the biotechnology industry.