Well, that was a swell three-decade run.
It seems a foregone conclusion that French pharmaceutical-maker Sanofi-Aventis will buy Cambridge's Genzyme Corp. sometime soon for about $20 billion. That'll end Genzyme's thirty-year stretch as one of the most innovative (and at times, controversial) pioneers of the biotech industry. With about 12,000 employees and $4 billion in annual revenues, Genzyme is not only the biggest biotech company in Massachusetts, but it's one of the last of the first-generation biotech companies still standing as an independent business. (Two years ago, a Swiss company, Roche Holdings, paid $46 billion for the very first biotech firm, San Francisco-based Genentech, founded in 1976.)
To read the full, original article click on this link: Genzyme nears the end of an era - Innovation Economy - Boston.com
Author: Scott Kirsner
