Basel, 13 December 2006

Changes to the Roche Board of Directors and executive management

Reinforcement and further rejuvenation of Board and top management

Roche is reinforcing its Board of Directors with two experienced business leaders at the next shareholders' meeting and will move younger managers into key executive positions in 2007.

Board of Directors to be expanded
At the next annual general meeting of Roche shareholders on 5 March 2007, the Board of Directors will propose that Pius Baschera and Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer be elected as additional members of the Board.

Prof. Pius Baschera, a Swiss citizen born in 1950, is currently chief executive of Hilti Corporation and designated chairman of the Hilti board. After completing degrees in mechanical engineering and management studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Baschera joined Hilti Corporation in 1979. He held a number of positions in the United States and Europe before being appointed CFO in 1990. In 1994 Prof. Baschera became chairman of the executive board, a position he will step down from when he becomes chairman of the board on 1 January 2007. Baschera is an honorary professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich.

Dr Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer, an Austrian citizen born in 1950, is a graduate of Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Since 2002 he has been CEO and chairman of the executive board of OMV Aktiengesellschaft, in addition to heading the company's natural gas and chemicals businesses. Ruttenstorfer joined OMV in 1976 and was appointed to the executive board in 1992. From 1997 to 1999 he was Austria's deputy minister of finance, returning to OMV in 2000. Ruttenstorfer is a recognised expert on the emerging markets of Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Changes to the Corporate Executive Committee
From 1 January 2007 Pascal Soriot, head of Pharma Strategic Marketing, will become head of Commercial Operations, with responsibility for Roche Pharmaceuticals' regional and country organisations and Strategic Marketing. As a new member of the Enlarged Corporate Executive Committee, he will continue to report directly to the CEO Division Roche Pharmaceuticals, William Burns.

Eduard Holdener, head of Global Pharma Development, will retire at the end of 2007. He will be succeeded by Jean-Jacques Garaud, who joins Roche on 1 January as a new member of the Pharma Executive Committee, reporting to William Burns. Until the end of the year, Ed Holdener will take over the function of Chief Medical Officer, with direct responsibility for Drug Safety and Quality Audit and for establishing a new development centre in Shanghai. All other Pharma Development functions will report to Jean-Jacques Garaud as of 1 January 2007.

Claude Schreiner, head of Roche Pharmaceuticals' Western Europe Region, will retire at the end of May 2007 after more then 40 years of service in key functions at Roche. He will be succeeded by Peter Hug, currently head of Pharma Partnering.

Roche would like to express its deep gratitude to Claude Schreiner and Eduard Holdener for their long and very valuable contributions to the company's success and wish them all the best for the future.

Announcing the changes, Roche Chairman and CEO Franz B. Humer said, "These new appointments continue the process we initiated a few years ago of systematically strengthening the Group's top echelons and bringing in new blood. It's been our policy for a good many years to promote young executives from within the company and to strengthen our organisation by recruiting recognised experts from outside. In terms of managerial and professional expertise, age structure and international experience, the Board, the Corporate Executive Committee and the top management of both divisions are now very well equipped to meet the challenges of the future."

About Roche
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As a supplier of innovative products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people's health and quality of life. Roche is a world leader in diagnostics, the leading supplier of medicines for cancer and transplantation and a market leader in virology. In 2005 sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totalled 27.3 billion Swiss francs, and the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 8.2 billion Swiss francs. Roche employs roughly 70,000 people in 150 countries and has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai. Additional information about the Roche Group is available on the Internet (www.roche.com).


Roche Board of Directors and Corporate Executive Committee