Genentech stays the course

While other pharmas are increasingly sourcing innovation through academic partnerships to bolster their pipelines, Roche's Genentech Inc. unit believes its best strategy for staying ahead is to hire and grow the best scientists in-house, and that the key to preclinical success is to bring in clinical and marketing input from the get-go.

Sara Kenkare-Mitra, SVP of development sciences at Genentech, told BioCentury that over the past decade, the company's decision-making processes have become faster and more rigorous by toppling silos and building a model to seamlessly integrate its various preclinical and clinical teams from the earliest stages of drug development. ...