Research & Development Overview
Custom-made solutions for patients
Roche believes that finding innovative solutions for serious, currently unsolved medical problems is what a healthcare company is all about. Our people strive to create clinically differentiated drugs and diagnostic tests to enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients.
Today sophisticated technologies and molecular insights are available to better understand the root causes of diseases, to develop and adjust treatment to the patients. However discovering and developing novel medicines and diagnostic tests is still a very complex and time consuming undertaking.
Seamless integration
Over the past few years we have continuously improved the organisational and technological framework for cooperation between our Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics Divisions.
Although they have different R & D processes, the two divisions can share research facilities, technologies and discoveries when working together on internal projects. This is a unique advantage that sets Roche apart from other companies. Diagnostic tools are finding increasing use in pharmaceutical research. Most importantly, close cooperation is the basis for the successful implementation of our personalised healthcare strategy.
The organisational alignment of our Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics Divisions enables seamless collaboration along the whole value chain, from discovery to commercialisation. This is particularly important since personalised healthcare starts early in the drug development process.
Roche has identified a multitude of potential biomarkers that can be used to evaluate disease processes, understand disease diversity, identify drug targets and recognize differences between patients. Once a biomarker is found, a standardised diagnostic test can be developed before or during clinical trials and prepared for regulatory approval alongside the drug.
Today, Roche has biomarker programmes and dedicated biomarker teams for every drug in development. Our Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics Divisions are currently collaborating on more than 200 projects across all therapeutic areas of interest at Roche. More than half of these projects are in
- oncology, followed by
- inflammation/immunology,
- neuroscience,
- virology and
- metabolic diseases.
Innovation is the backbone of Roche’s strategy
Innovation requires perseverance and a long-term perspective; that is why we spent over 8 billion Swiss francs on Research and Development in 2012.
Roche has R&D facilities in Europe, Asia and the United States, augmented by a network of alliances and partnerships giving it broad access to key technologies.