Genentech, Inc. is an American biotechnology company headquartered in South San Francisco, California, founded on 7 April 1976 by venture capitalist Robert Swanson and biochemist Herbert Boyer. Widely regarded as the first biotechnology company and the first to commercialise recombinant DNA technology, it has been a wholly owned member of the Roche Group since March 2009, and its South San Francisco campus serves as headquarters for Roche's US pharmaceutical operations. Genentech Research and Early Development (gRED) operates as a distinct research unit within Roche, and the company works across oncology and haematology, neurology, immunology, ophthalmology and cardiovascular/renal/metabolism with more than 40 marketed medicines.