Syndicate content

Roche news

6th Roche Children's Walk: some 14’000 employees from 100 sites worldwide walk today to support children in need

On 1st December for the sixth consecutive year, Roche will be holding a sponsored worldwide walk to raise money to help orphans and children in need. With their participation, the Roche employees demonstrate their solidarity and ongoing commitment to help support children in Malawi and childrens’ organisations in their own countries. All funds raised by employees are matched by Roche.

Roche signs definitive agreement to acquire Memory Pharmaceuticals

Roche and Memory Pharmaceuticals today announced that the two companies have signed a definitive merger agreement for Roche to fully acquire Memory in an all-cash transaction at a price of approximately USD 50 million.

Roche to develop alternative project to planned office high-rise

Roche has decided for technical reasons not to continue with its office high-rise in the form originally planned. It became apparent during the project design phase that the building would not be capable of satisfying key functional requirements despite the high investment.

New phase III study of Avastin in advanced breast cancer meets its primary endpoint of increasing the time patients live without their disease getting worse

Third study confirming the benefit of Avastin in breast cancer shows that Avastin can be effectively combined with commonly used chemotherapies

RoActemra Receives Positive Opinion in Europe for the Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Roche today announced that the European Committee on Human Medicinal Products (CHMP) has given a positive recommendation for RoActemra (tocilizumab, known as Actemra outside of the EU), in combination with methotrexate (MTX), for the treatment of adult patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who have either responded inadequately to, or who were intolerant to, previous therapy w

Management Change Corporate Communications

Effective January 1, 2009, Per-Olof Attinger will be appointed Head of Corporate Communications and Member of the Enlarged Corporate Executive Committee, reporting to Severin Schwan, CEO of the Roche Group. He succeeds Rolf Schläpfer, who – as previously announced – has decided to leave Roche at the end of the year to pursue his career outside the company.

Tarceva brings new hope to patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer

Roche today announced that the SATURN (SequentiAl Tarceva in UnResectable NSCLC) study met its primary endpoint of progression free survival.

FDA approves most comprehensive test for the simultaneous screening of donated blood for HIV, Hepatitis B & Hepatitis C

The United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) today approved a new test from Roche that uses nucleic acid technology (NAT) to screen blood supplies for the broadest range of HIV and hepatitis infections.

New data shows ACTEMRA inhibits progression of joint destruction and improves physical function of patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis

Roche announced today that the innovative new therapy ACTEMRA (tocilizumab) can significantly inhibit structural damage to joints in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) – this is a critical measure of effectiveness of an RA treatment. ACTEMRA was also found to improve the patients’ physical function after one year of therapy and to significantly increase the disease remission rate.

Roche posts sustained double-digit sales growth for the first nine months of 2008

Sales by the Roche Group in the first nine months of 2008 increased by 6% in local currencies (-2% in Swiss francs; 13% in US dollars) to 33.3 billion Swiss francs. Excluding Tamiflu pandemic sales to governments and corporations, sales rose 10% (2% in Swiss francs; 17% in US dollars). The rise in the Swiss franc against most currencies, particularly against the US dollar, resulted in Swiss franc growth being eight percentage points lower than growth in local currencies.