Genentech Starts German Distribution Project

US biotechnology company Genentech, in which Swiss company Roche has a majority stake, has set up a subsidiary in southern Germany. Director of Genentech GmbH, Peter Frey, says that while the company regarded itself earlier as a research-based organization, making its results available to drugmakers through license agreements, the revamped company will now market its own products. Some of this marketing will be undertaken via Roche but Genentech aims to be present in the main European markets by the year 2000.

Further subsidiaries are to be set up soon in the Netherlands, the UK and Ireland and the company's European headquarters are located in Switzerland. German operations are to start with Pulmozyme (dornase alfa), approved by the Federal Health Office in September for the treatment of cystic fibrosis. There are an estimated 6,500-9,000 cystic fibrosis patients in Germany.

Worldwide sales of Pulmozyme are expected to be $90-$100 million in 1994.