By ANDREW POLLACK Published: April 23, 2012（From The New York Times）

George B. Rathmann, who was the first chief executive of Amgen and helped build it into the world’s largest biotechnology company, died on Sunday at his home in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 84.

His son James, in confirming the death, said Dr. Rathmann had suffered from kidney failure for several years.

Dr. Rathmann is widely considered one of the fathers of the biotechnology industry. There were only a handful of companies involved in genetic engineering in 1980, when Dr. Rathmann was recruited from Abbott Laboratories to run Amgen, which was little more than a vague idea by some venture capitalists to start a company, without knowing exactly what the company would pursue.

But over the next eight years, Dr. Rathmann focused Amgen on developing what would become two of the most successful drugs in history — Epogen, to treat anemia, and Neupogen, which helps cancer patients receiving chemotherapy avoid infections.

“He was the one who created the company, without any doubt,” said Lowell Sears, a former chief financial officer at Amgen, which is based in Thousand Oaks, Calif. In 1990, after stepping down as chief executive at Amgen, Dr. Rathmann co-founded Icos, which developed the erectile dysfunction drug Cialis and was acquired by Eli Lilly & Company. Dr. Rathmann came to biotechnology relatively late in his career.

He started out working about 20 years at 3M, working on Scotchgard and other products, before becoming head of research and development for the diagnostics division of Abbott Laboratories in 1975. (He also worked briefly for Litton Medical Systems.)

In the late 1970s, after scientists learned how to splice genes from one organism into another, Dr. Rathmann decided, as he later told an interviewer, that “this was the most important thing I had ever seen.” He persuaded Abbott to give him a leave of absence to work in a laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles, to learn the technology.

“I said, ‘George, you are making the biggest mistake of your life,’ ” recalled Jack Schuler, who was Dr. Rathmann’s boss at Abbott Laboratories and now co-manages Crabtree Partners, an investment firm. The professor who ran the U.C.L.A. laboratory, Winston Salser, was just starting Amgen at the time. While Abbott tried to keep Dr. Rathmann, he joined the new company. Abbott then invested $5 million in Amgen for a stake that it eventually sold for $250 million, Mr. Schuler said.

Epogen and Neupogen, and new versions of those drugs, have remained the mainstays of Amgen’s business, which last year had $15.6 billion in revenue.

With a rare combination of a scientific pedigree, business acumen and a charismatic style, Dr. Rathmann, a bearded bear of a man at 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, became a kind of senior statesman for the biotechnology industry.

“He just had the respect of so many other C.E.O.’s,” said Daniel Vapnek, the first director of research at Amgen. “I think he gave it a real level of credibility.”

He acquired the nickname “the golden throat” because of his persuasiveness, a trait that came in handy in raising money for Amgen and other biotech companies. Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, invested in Icos, in part because of Dr. Rathmann.

George Blatz Rathmann was born on Dec. 25, 1927, in Milwaukee. His father, Louis, was involved in the department store, securities and insurance businesses at different times. His mother, Edna Blatz, was part of a beer-brewing family. Dr. Rathmann earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Northwestern University and a doctorate in physical chemistry from Princeton.

Besides his son James, Dr. Rathmann is survived by his wife of 62 years, Joy; three daughters, Margaret Rathmann, Laura Jean Rathmann and Sally Kadifa; another son, Richard; and 13 grandchildren.

In 2000, already in his 70s, Dr. Rathmann became the chairman and eventual chief executive of Hyseq, a Silicon Valley company seeking to harness the new technology of genomics. That company, later known as Nuvelo, was less successful.

Dr. Rathmann started the Rathmann Family Foundation, which donates to causes in education, health, the arts and the environment.

For several years before his death, Dr. Rathmann received kidney dialysis and was treated with Epogen, the anemia drug that Amgen developed.

(A version of this article appeared in print on April 24, 2012, on page B17 of the New York edition with the headline: George Rathmann, Amgen Chief, Dies at 84.)

George B. Rathmann(Dec. 25, 1927 - Apr. 22, 2012)

RIP, Dr. Rathmann. You'll be missed by all that benefit a lot from your brilliant career.

See also：A Tribute to George Rathmann, Amgen's Founding CEO (1927-2012) (From Amgen Homepage)

PS: The world's 50 largest pharmaceutical company ranking, 2011 (From DXY.cn)