Shrugging off a long season of thwarted plays, lowered rankings and second-guessing from the sidelines, major league biotechnology veteran Genentech Inc. is on the verge of setting a career record. The South San Francisco firm that founded the biotechnology industry in 1976 is widely expected to score three new drug approvals within a one-year period -- an achievement that’s rare for a biotech firm and impressive even among huge pharmaceutical companies.
