Roche invests in Germany and Swiss biotech sites
pharmafile | January 18, 2008 | News story | Manufacturing and Production, Research and Development |Â Â Â
Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche is to invest $390 million (430 million Swiss francs) in three of its European sites to help boost biotech R&D and manufacturing.
Roche has approved extensive investment plans for its Penzberg and Mannheim sites in Germany and Kaiseraugst in Switzerland.
The decision is good news for Europe, which is increasingly losing out to Asia as a site for new investments in R&D and manufacturing.
Around 280 million Swiss francs will be put into expanding biotech drug research and development activities at Penzberg in Germany, which the company says will ensure that the company's value added chain is exploited to its full potential in the development and production of biopharmaceuticals mainly for oncology applications.
A total of some 150 million francs will be invested at Mannheim and over the border in Switzerland at Kaiseraugst, the money being invested in new facilities such as modern syringe filling capacities for drugs such as Mircera, Pegasys or Actemra.
Roche chief executive and chairman Franz Humer commented: "After conducting a thorough evaluation of our production sites in many regions of the world and taking on board local business conditions at each, we have decided to make investments at these three sites in Germany and Switzerland.
"With our biopharmaceuticals heavily in demand, this step will both safeguard and expand production. Investments like this are very much long term in nature and they create hundreds of jobs in and around the company. It is therefore essential that a stable, industry-friendly environment be maintained in the long term."
The decision brings Roche's investment in pharma production equipment in the last five years to a total of one billion Swiss francs ($900 million, 600 million euros) each in Germany and in Switzerland, resulting in the creation of several hundred new jobs.
Five of Roche's top ten drugs are biotech products and account for around 45% of the pharma division's total sales. Its best known biotech drugs such as Herceptin and Avastin originate from Genentech, the Californian biotech company in which Roche has the majority shareholding, and Roche is keen to discover and develop an equally impressive portfolio from its European base.
The company says that measured by sales and production capacities of biopharmaceuticals, it is already the world's leading biotech company.
