Roche unveils plans for first Asian diagnostics plant
pharmafile | November 6, 2014 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | Asia-Pacific, China, Roche, asia pacific, asian, manufacturing
Roche has said it will invest 450 million Swiss francs ($468m) in the construction of a diagnostics manufacturing facility in China, its first in the Asia-Pacific region.
The facility in Suzhou Industrial Park will concentrate on making Roche’s immunochemistry and clinical chemistry diagnostics and will employ around 600 people ‘over the next several years,’ according to the company.
The first phase of the project – which will focus on packaging – is due to come online in 2018. The facility will cater for “the continuously growing demand for diagnostic tests in China and the Asia Pacific region,” says Roche, adding it will be its eighth diagnostic production facility worldwide.
China is a major growth market for the firm’s diagnostics business, with sales up 24% there in the first nine months of the year at a time when the division’s overall revenues grew just 6% to 7.8 billion Swiss francs ($8.1 billion). The wider Asia-Pacific region grew 15% to 1.38 billion francs, accounting for around 18% of the unit’s total turnover.
China’s healthcare market is predicted to grow by around 13% to reach almost $600 billion this year, according to Business Monitor International, and that growth – while somewhat undermined by concerns about the stability of the country’s economy – continues to encourage healthcare companies to invest capital.
In June for example, GE Corporation opened a $100m facility in Tianjin that will serve the market with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and other imaging products, encouraged by rising access to healthcare services in the country.
“We are excited to expand our diagnostics value chain in China to include manufacturing,” says Roland Diggelmann, Roche Diagnostics’ chief operating officer.
“We are confident that by establishing our manufacturing footprint here in Suzhou … we can further increase our market responsiveness and contribute to the overall competitiveness of our business,” he adds.
Roche Diagnostics has had a presence in the Asia-Pacific region for 40 years and employs over 4,000 people, across 15 countries in the region.
Phil Taylor
Related Content
Roche receives CE Mark for blood test to help rule out Alzheimer’s
Roche has been granted CE Mark approval for its Elecsys pTau181 test, the first in …
Roche candidate shows early promise for treating haemophilia A
Roche has announced encouraging early results from its phase 1/2 trial of NXT007, an investigational …
Roche advances treatment for Parkinson’s disease
Swiss biopharma, Roche, has announced its decision to proceed with phase 3 trials of prasinezumab, …
