F. Hoffmann-La Roche AG is a Swiss multinational healthcare company that operates worldwide under two divisions: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. Its holding company, Roche Holding AG, has bearer shares listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The company headquarters are located in Basel.
The company controls the American biotechnology company Genentech, which is a wholly owned affiliate, and the Japanese biotechnology company Chugai Pharmaceuticals, as well as the United States-based Ventana. Roche's revenues during fiscal year 2016 were 50.58 billion Swiss francs, or approximately US$50 billion. Roche is the third-largest pharma company worldwide. Descendants of the founding Hoffmann and Oeri families own slightly over half of the bearer shares with voting rights (a pool of family shareholders 45%, and Maja Oeri a further 5% apart), with Swiss pharma firm Novartis owning a further third of its shares. Roche is one of the few companies increasing their dividend every year, for 2016 as the 30th consecutive year. F. Hoffmann-La Roche is a full member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).
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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). It manufactures and sells several cancer drugs and is a leader in this field. In 1956, the first antidepressant, 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 It was withdrawn from the market in the early 1960s due to toxic side-effects.
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.
Roche has also produced various HIV tests and antiretroviral drugs. It bought the patents for the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique in 1992. In 1995 the era of highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART) was initiated by the United States FDA's approval of Hoffman LaRoche's HIV protease inhibitor saquinavir. Within 2 years of its approval (and that of ritonavir 4 months later) annual deaths from AIDS in the United States fell from over 50,000 to approximately 18,000 On 28 April 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). Roche acquired Syntex in 1994 and Chugai Pharmaceuticals in 2002.
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 without adjusting the payments for manufacturing costs, as had been allowedin the original licensing agreement.
On 20 October 2005, Hoffmann-La Roche decided to license other companies to manufacture Oseltamivir.
Also in 2005, Roche acquired the Swiss company GlycArt Biotechnology in order to acquire technology to afucosylate antibodies; one of its products in development was obinutuzumab, which gained FDA approval in November 2013 for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
On 22 January 2008, Roche acquired Ventana Medical Systems for $3.4 billion. On 2 January 2009, Roche acquired Memory Pharmaceuticals Corp. On 26 March, Roche acquired Genentech for $46.8 billion. On 12 March 2009 Roche agreed to fully acquire Genentech, in which it had held a majority stake since 1990, after 8 months of negotiations. As a result of the Genentech acquisition, Roche closed its Palo Alto based research facilities and moved them to their campus that straddles the border between Clifton, New Jersey and Nutley, New Jersey while Roche's United States headquarters, located on the site since 1929, was moved to Genentech's facility in South San Francisco. Genentech became a wholly owned subsidiary group of Roche on 25 March 2009.
On 13 April, Roche acquired Medingo Ltd., for $160 million. On 23 August 2010, Roche acquired BioImagene, Inc., for $100 million. In 2011, the company received the ISPE Facility of the Year Award for Process Innovation for Roche's "MyDose" Clinical Supply project. On 15 March, Roche acquired PVT Probenverteiltechnik GmbH for up to 85 million EUR. On 19 July, Roche acquired mtm laboratories AG for up to 190 million EUR. On 17 October, Roche acquired Anadys Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for $230 million.
On 26 June 2012, Roche announced the closure of the Nutley/Clifton campus, which was completed in 2013. The property is in the process of remediation. On 2 July 2013, Roche Diagnostics acquired blood diagnostics company Constitution Medical Inc. for $220 million.
On 7 April 2014, Roche announced its intention to acquire IQuum for up to $450 million, as well as the rights to an experimental drug (ORY-1001) from Spanish company Oryzon Genomics for $21 million and up to $500 million in milestone payments. On 2 June, Roche announced its intention to acquire Genia Technologies Inc. for up to $350 million. In August 2014, the company agreed to purchase Californian-based pharmaceutical firm InterMune for $8.3 billion, at $74 a share this represents a 38% premium over the final share closing price. In December 2014, the company acquired next-generation sequencing processing company Bina Technologies for an undisclosed sum.
On 16 January 2015, the company announced that they would acquire Trophos for EUR470 million ($543 million) in order to increase the company's neuromuscular disease presence. The deal will centre on the Phase II and III spinal muscular atrophy drug olesoxime (TRO19622). In August, the company announced its intention to acquire GeneWEAVE for up to $425 million in order to strengthen its microbial diagnostics business. Days later the company acquired Kapa Biosystems focussing on next generation sequencing and polymerase chain reaction applications. In October 2015, the company acquired Adheron Therapeutics for $105 million (plus up to $475 million in milestone payments).
In January 2016, the company announced it would acquire Tensha Therapeutics for $115 million upfront, with $420 million in contingent payments.
In January 2017, the company acquired ForSight Labs.
Acquisition history
The following is an illustration of the company's major mergers and acquisitions and historical predecessors (this is not a comprehensive list):
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Products
Drugs produced by Roche include:
- Accutane/Roaccutane (isotretinoin) for severe (nodular) acne vulgaris - no longer sold
- Actemra/RoActemra (tocilizumab) for rheumatoid arthritis
- Alecensa (alectinib) for ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer
- Anexate (flumazenil) for the reversal of acute benzodiazepine effects
- Avastin (bevacizumab) for certain malignant tumors
- Aurorix (moclobemide) for depression
- Bactrim (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole), a sulphonamide antibacterial
- Boniva/Bonviva (ibandronic acid) for the treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal women
- Camleed (enprostil) for gastric ulcer prevention
- Cardene (nicardipine) for treatment of stable angina pectoris
- Cellcept (mycophenolate mofetil) for transplant rejection
- Cymevene (ganciclovir) for cytomegalovirus infection
- Dilatrend (carvedilol) for hypertension and congestive heart failure
- Dalmane/Dalmadorm (flurazepam) for insomnia
- Dormicum (midazolam) for insomnia and procedural sedation and analgesia
- Erivedge (vismodegib) for basal-cell carcinoma
- Esbriet for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
- Fansidar (sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine) for malaria and toxoplasmosis
- Fuzeon (enfuvirtide) for salvage therapy of HIV-1 infection
- Herceptin (trastuzumab) for HER-2 positive breast cancer
- Inhibace (cilazapril) for hypertension and congestive heart failure
- Invirase (saquinavir) for HIV-1 infection
- Klonopin/Rivotril (clonazepam) for epilepsy and anxiety disorders
- Kytril (granisetron) for chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting
- Lariam (mefloquine) for malaria (both prevention and treatment)
- Lexotanil (bromazepam) for anxiety disorders
- MabThera (rituximab) for B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (and other hematological malignancies), non-Hodgkin lymphomas and rheumatoid arthritis
- Madopar/Prolopa (levodopa/benserazide) for Parkinson's disease
- Mircera (methoxy polyethylene glycol-epoetin beta) for anaemia associated with chronic kidney disease
- Naprosyn (naproxen), an NSAID used for pain relief and arthritis treatment
- Neulastim (pegfilgrastim) for neutropenia
- Neupogen (filgrastim) for neutropenia
- Pegasys (peginterferon alfa-2a) for hepatitis B and C
- Pulmozyme (dornase alfa) for the improvement of pulmonary function in cystic fibrosis
- Soriatane/Neotigason (acitretin) for psoriasis
- Recormon/NeoRecormon (epoetin beta) for anemia
- Rocaltrol (calcitriol) for osteoporosis and hypocalcaemia
- Rocephin (ceftriaxone), a broad-spectrum cephalosporin antibiotic
- Roferon-A (interferon alfa-2a) for some hematological malignancies (hairy cell leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia), certain solid tumors (including Kaposi's sarcoma), genital warts and chronic hepatitis C
- Rohypnol (flunitrazepam) for severe insomnia
- Tamiflu (oseltamivir) for influenza A and B (both treatment and prevention)
- Tarceva (erlotinib) for various cancers
- Toradol (ketorolac) for pain management
- Valcyte (valganciclovir) for cytomegalovirus infection
- Valium (diazepam) for anxiety disorders, alcohol withdrawal, status epilepticus and other conditions
- Vesanoid (tretinoin) for acute promyelocytic leukemia
- Xeloda (capecitabine) for breast and colorectal cancer
- Xenical (orlistat) for obesity
- Zelboraf (vemurafenib) for late-stage V600E BRAF mutation-positive melanoma
- Zenapax (daclizumab) for the prevention of acute transplant rejection
Diabetes management products produced by Roche under the Accu-Chek brand include Accu-Chek Mobile, Accu-Chek Aviva, Accu-Chek Compact Plus, Accu-Chek Aviva Expert, Accu-Chek Active, Accu-Chek Advantage, Accu-Chek Performa, Accu-Chek Aviva Nano, Accu-Chek Performa Nano blood glucose monitors. Accu-Chek Spirit and Accu-Chek Combo insulin pumps. Accu-Chek 360 and SmartPix diabetes management software.
Price-fixing conspiracy
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.
In 1999 the firm pleaded guilty to participation in a worldwide conspiracy to raise and fix prices for vitamins sold in the USA and globally. Hoffmann-La Roche paid $500 million in criminal fines to the United States.
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. The company is expanding its activities in joint research projects within the framework of the Innovative Medicines Initiative of EFPIA and the European Commission.
Bibliography
- Hans Conrad Peyer (1996) Roche - A Company History 1896-1996 Basel: Editiones Roche ISBN 3-907770-59-5
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