Cetus Corporation
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| Public (under CTUS) | |
| Industry | Biotechnology |
| Founded | 1971 |
| Headquarters | Emeryville, California |
| Products | Betaseron, Proleukin, PCR |
Cetus Corporation was one of the first biotechnology companies. It was established in Berkeley, California in 1971, but conducted most of its operations in nearby Emeryville. Before merging with another company in 1991, it developed several significant pharmaceutical drugs as well as a revolutionary DNA amplification technique.
Cetus was founded in 1971 by Ronald E. Cape, Peter Farley, and Nobelist Donald A. Glaser. Its early efforts involved automated methods to select for industrial microorganisms that could produce greater amounts of chemical feedstocks, antibiotics, or vaccine components. By the late-1970s, however, three new revolutionary techniques had been developed: recombinant DNA, monoclonal antibodies, and gene expression, the foundations of the biotechnology industry. In order to enter these new fields, Cetus raised $108 million in an Initial Public Offering in 1981, the largest IPO to that date.
Its first large development project, in conjunction with Triton Biosciences, was the successful cloning, expression, modification, and production of beta-interferon. Unfortunately, the resultant protein did not live up to its expectations as a broad-spectrum anti-cancer drug, and only much later was it approved for use to treat symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis. The product is now sold under the name Betaseron.
The company's flagship product was Interleukin-2 (IL-2), an important modifier of the immune system. In the early 1980s, an intense competition to clone the gene for IL-2 was underway among Cetus, Genentech, Immunex, and the Japanese researcher, Tadatsugu Taniguchi, and in 1982 Taniguchi was the first to succeed. By 1983 Cetus created a proprietary recombinant version of IL2 and collaborated with Steven Rosenberg to begin clinical trials. The drug showed promising effects in treating renal cancer, but also had significant side effects on patients. In 1990 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refused to approve the drug for clinical use, asking for additional information. It wasn't until two years later, after Cetus had been sold, that IL-2 was approved. It is now distributed under the name Proleukin.
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