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Media Release

Per-Olof Attinger

Basel, 13 November 2008

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.

Per-Olof Attinger (1960) is Swiss and has a degree in Chemical Engineering from the ETH Zürich and an MBA from INSEAD. He joined Roche Corporate Finance in 1992 and was responsible for various M&A projects for Roche as Corporate Business Development Manager. Since 2000 Per-Olof Attinger has held global leading positions in various staff and line functions within the Diagnostics Division. In 2006 he became a member of the divisional Executive Committee and was most recently responsible for the successful integration of Ventana, which was acquired at the beginning of this year.

Roche would like to thank Rolf Schläpfer for his valuable contribution over many years and wish him all the best for the future. The company wishes Per-Olof Attinger every success in his new position.  

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 the world’s biggest biotech company and an innovator of products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people’s health and quality of life. Roche is the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics and drugs for cancer and transplantation, and is a market leader in virology. It is also active in other major therapeutic areas such as autoimmune diseases, inflammatory and metabolic disorders and diseases of the central nervous system. In 2007 sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totalled 36.8 billion Swiss francs, and the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 9.3 billion francs. Roche has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai, and invested over 8 billion Swiss francs in R&D in 2007. Worldwide, the Group employs about 80,000 people. Additional information is available on the Internet at www.roche.com.