Pharmaceuticals R&D

No company in the world invests more than we do in the quest for innovative healthcare solutions. More than 330,000 patients are currently enrolled in over 2,100 clinical trials involving investigational or currently marketed Roche Group medicines. We plan to maintain high levels of R & D investment so that we can continue to move the most advanced projects towards market launch while ensuring a steady flow of promising new compounds into late-stage development.

The Research and Development organisation in Pharma is built around five Discovery and Translational Areas (DTAs):

• Oncology
• Virology
• Inflammation
• Metabolism
• Neuroscience

Scientific breakthroughs are most likely to occur when scientists are free to tackle problems from different angles and in different ways. Roche scientists have this freedom. We believe that a diversity of views, cultures and approaches promotes creativity, especially in research and early development:

Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED), Genentech Research and Early Development (gRED), Roche Diagnostics and Chugai operate independently within the Group, forming the hubs of an innovation network that includes alliances with more than 150 outside partners, such as universities, research institutes and biotech companies.

At the end of 2011 the Pharmaceuticals Division’s clinical development portfolio (phases I to III and registration) included 79 new molecular entities (NMEs), up from 62 a year earlier, and 43 additional indications. In 2011 we filed marketing applications for no fewer than three NMEs.

Quarterly updates to the division's R&D pipeline are posted on Roche Pharmaceuticals pipeline.