Genentech on Forbes' Platinum List

Genentech on Forbes' Platinum List
By Amanda Janis/Business Writer
TheReporter.Com

Biotherapuetic developer and manufacturer Genentech was among nine pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that made this year's Forbes Platinum 400 list, released by the business and financial media group this week.

Genentech - which is significantly expanding its Vacaville facilities - was ranked 153 out of 400 companies, based upon factors including a five-year total return of 22.6 percent, 42.8 percent sales growth in the last 12 months, and more than $6 million in sales and a net income in excess of $1 billion through November 2005, according to Forbes.

Genentech was the second-highest ranked company of its kind, coming in behind Gilead Sciences, which makes therapeutics for life-threatening diseases including HIV and influenza. This is the third year Genentech has made the Forbes list.

The magazine's annual list, which is also referred to as the America's Best Big Companies list, has - for six out of seven years - outperformed the stock market in the 12 months following its release, according to Forbes.

"The Platinum 400 had its best 12-month run in 2003, when it gained an average 26 percent vs. 13 percent from the S&P 500 and 10 percent for the Dow Jones Industrial Average," wrote Forbes' Brian Zajac in an introductory article published with the list of companies and statistics.

According to Zajac, selection criteria for companies included revenue of at least $1 billion, stock prices at or above $5 per share, and having been public entities for at least two years. Forbes then ranked companies against industry counterparts over
the past five years, as well as over the past 12 months.

In addition to Genentech and Gilead Sciences, the drug and biotech companies that made the Forbes Platinum 400 list were Barr Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson, Amgen, Allergan, Abbott Laboratories, Invitrogen and King Pharmaceuticals.

Amanda Janis can be reached atbusiness@thereporter.com.