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Roche

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Roche Holding AG
Company typeAktiengesellschaft
SIX: ROG, Template:Pink sheets
IndustryPharmaceutical industry
Founded1896
FounderFritz Hoffmann-La Roche
HeadquartersBasel, Switzerland
Key people
Severin Schwan (CEO), Franz Humer (Chairman of the board), Pascal Soriot (COO, pharmaceuticals) Daniel O'Day (chief operating officer
ProductsPharmaceuticals and diagnostics (list of products...)
RevenueCHF 47.47 billion (2010)[1]
CHF 13.49 billion (2010)[1]
CHF 8.666 billion (2010)[1]
Total assetsCHF 61.02 billion (2010)[1]
Total equityCHF 11.66 billion (2010)[1]
Number of employees
80,650 (end 2010)[1]
SubsidiariesGenentech, Ventana
Websitewww.roche.com

F. Hoffmann–La Roche Ltd. is a Swiss global health-care company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has shares listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

The company headquarters are located in Basel and the company has many sites around the world - including: South San Francisco, California, Pleasanton, Branchburg, Indianapolis, and in the US, Welwyn Garden City and Burgess Hill in the UK, Clarecastle in Ireland, Mannheim and Penzberg in Germany, Mississauga and Laval in Canada, Shanghai in China, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The company also owns the American bioweaponstechnology company Genentech, which is a wholly owned affiliate, and the Japanese biotechnology company Chugai Pharmaceuticals as well as the Tucson, Arizona based Ventana.

Roche's revenues during fiscal year 2010 were CHF 47.49 billion.[1] Descendants of the founding Hoffmann and Oeri families own slightly over half of the company, with Swiss pharma firm Novartis owning a further third of its shares.[1]

F. Hoffmann–La Roche is a full member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).[2]

History

Founded in 1896 by Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, the company was early on known for producing various vitamin preparations and derivatives. In 1934, it became the first company to mass produce synthetic vitamin C, under the brand name Redoxon. In 1957 it introduced the class of tranquilizers known as benzodiazepines (with Valium and Rohypnol being the best known members). Its acne drug isotretinoin, marketed as Accutane and Roaccutane, also used as a form of chemotherapy for some cancers, has been linked with a number of severe side effects and remains highly controversial but highly effective at the same time. Roche has also produced various HIV tests and antiretroviral drugs. It bought the patents for the polymerase chain reaction technique in 1992. It manufactures and sells several cancer drugs.

In 1976, an accident at a chemical factory in Seveso, Italy owned by a subsidiary of Roche caused a large dioxin contamination; see Seveso disaster.

In 1982, the United States arm of the company acquired Biomedical Reference Laboratories for US$163.5 million. That company dated from the late 1960s, and was located in Burlington, North Carolina. That year Hoffmann–La Roche then merged it with all of its laboratories, and incorporated the merged company as Roche Biomedical Laboratories, Inc. in Burlington. By the early 1990s, Roche Biomedical became one of the largest clinical laboratory networks in the United States, with 20 major laboratories and US$600 million in sales.[3]

On April 28, 1995 Hoffmann–La Roche sold Roche Biomedical Laboratories, Inc. to National Health Laboratories Holdings Inc. (which then changed its name to Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings).[4] In 1994, Roche acquired Syntex.

On 12 March 2009 Roche agreed to fully acquire Genentech, in which it had held a majority stake since 1990,[5] after 8 months of negotiations. As a result of the Genentech acquisition, Roche plans to close its Palo Alto based research facilities to move research to South San Francisco and Nutley campuses[6] Genentech became a wholly owned subsidiary group of Roche on 25 March 2009.[7]

Creation of the first anti-depressant

In 1956, Iproniazid was accidentally created during an experiment while synthesizing Isoniazid. Originally, it had been intended to create a more efficient drug at combatting Tuberculosis. Iproniazid, however, revealed to have its own benefits; some people felt it made them feel happier. It was withdrawn from the market in the early 1960s due to toxic side-effects.

Vitamin price fixing

Stanley Adams, Roche's World Product Manager in Basel, contacted the European Economic Community in 1973 with evidence that Roche had been breaking antitrust laws, engaging in price fixing and market sharing for vitamins with its competitors. Roche was fined accordingly, but a bungle on the part of the EEC allowed the company to discover that it was Adams who had blown the whistle. He was arrested for unauthorised disclosure — an offence under Swiss law — and imprisoned. His wife, having learnt that he might face decades in jail, committed suicide.[8] Adams was released soon after but arrested again more than once before eventually fleeing to Britain, where he wrote a book about the affair, Roche Versus Adams (London, 1984, ISBN 022402180X).

In 1999 Roche was the worldwide market leader in vitamins, with a market share of 40%. Between 1990 and 1999, the company continued to participate in an illegal price fixing cartel for vitamins, which also included BASF and Rhone-Poulenc SA. In 1999, Roche pleaded guilty in the United States and paid a US$500 million fine, then the largest fine ever secured in the U.S.[9] The European Commission fined Roche €462 million for the same infraction in 2001, also a record fine at the time.[8]

Roche sold its vitamin business in late 2002 to the Dutch group DSM.

Products

Drugs produced by Roche include Xenical, Valium, Dormicum, Roaccutane, Avastin, MabThera, Herceptin, Valcyte, Bactrim, Tarceva, Invirase, Boniva, Xeloda and Tamiflu.

Blood glucose monitoring products produced by Roche under the Accu-Chek brand include Accu-Chek Mobile, Accu-Chek Aviva, Accu-Chek Compact Plus

Oseltamivir Controversy

Oseltamivir is considered to be the primary antiviral drug used to combat avian influenza, commonly known as the bird flu. Roche is the only drug company authorized to manufacture the drug, which was discovered by Gilead Sciences. Roche purchased the rights to the drug in 1996 and in 2005 settled a royalty dispute, agreeing to pay Gilead tiered royalties of 14-22% of annual net sales.[10]


On 20 October 2005, Hoffmann–La Roche decided to license other companies to manufacture Oseltamivir.[11]

Collaborative research

In addition to internal research and development activities F. Hoffmann–La Roche is also involved in publicly funded collaborative research projects, with other industrial and academic partners. One example in the area of non-clinical safety assessment is the InnoMed PredTox.[12][13] The company is expanding its activities in joint research projects within the framework of the Innovative Medicines Initiative of EFPIA and the European Commission.[14]

Additional key persons

In addition to corporate executive committee members mentioned in the summary information box

  • Chief Financial Officer Dr Erich Hunziker (1953) (to be retired by end of March 2011, will be replaced by Alan Hippe from ThyssenKrupp
  • General Counsel and Head of Corporate Services Dr Gottlieb Keller (1954)
  • Head CEO Office, Per-Olof Attinger (1960)

Enlarged Corporate Executive Committee

  • Head Global Pharma Development Jean Jacques Garaud
  • Head of Human Resources Silvia Ayyoubi (1953)
  • Head Pharma Partnering Dan Zabrowski
  • Head of Pharma Research Lee Babbiss
  • Head of Roche Diagnostics' business area Diabetes Care Burkhard G. Piper (1961)
  • Head of Commercial Operations Pharma Pascal Soriot (1959)
  • President and CEO, Chugai Osamu Nagayama (1947)
  • Secretary to the Corporate Executive Committee, Per-Olof Attinger (1960)

Bibliography

  • Hans Conrad Peyer (1996) Roche - A Company History 1896-1996 Basel: Editiones Roche ISBN 3 907770 59 5

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Annual Report 2010" (PDF). Roche. Retrieved 3 February 2010.
  2. ^ "The Pharmaceutical Industry in Figures - 2008 Edition". European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). p. 49. Retrieved 2008-08-25.
  3. ^ "Roche Biomedical Laboratories, Inc". FundingUniverse.com.
  4. ^ Laboratory Corp of America Holdings · 10-Q · For 3/31/95, SECInfo.com, Filed On 5/15/95, SEC File 1-11353, Accession Number 920148-95-11
  5. ^ Pollack, Andrew (5 February 1990). "Genentech-Roche Deal May Spur Similar Ties". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
  6. ^ Bawden, Tom (13 March 2009). "Roche swallows Genentech in third large drugs deal". The Times. London. Retrieved 2009-04-11.
  7. ^ Jucca, Lisa (26 March 2009). "Roche completes Genentech buy". Reuters. Retrieved 2009-04-11. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ a b Blowing the final whistle, The Observer, 25 November 2001
  9. ^ http://www.quackwatch.org/02ConsumerProtection/rochefine.html
  10. ^ "Roche, Gilead End Tamiflu Feud". Red Herring. November 16, 2005.
  11. ^ Kher, Unmesh (2005-10-19). "Why Roche Released Tamiflu". Time. Time Inc. Retrieved 2008-05-22.
  12. ^ Mattes WB (2008), Public consortium efforts in toxicogenomics, Methods Mol Biol. 2008;460:221-38 [1]
  13. ^ "InnoMed PredTox Member Organizations". Retrieved 2008-08-25.
  14. ^ Innovative Medicines Initiative. "IMI Call Topics 2008". IMI-GB-018v2-24042008-CallTopics.pdf. European Commission. Retrieved 2008-08-25. [dead link]
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