Roche

Founded by Fritz Hoffman La Roche in 1896 in Basel, Switzerland, Roche has enjoyed continuity not seen in many other pharma companies, and is still today controlled by the Hoffman family.

The fortunes of the company have waxed and waned over the years, but Roche is now most definitely enjoying a golden period, thanks to a string of successful drugs launched in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Most of this success was based on its close relatisonship with Californian biotech firm Genentech, which discovered Herceptin, Xeloda and Avastin - and in 2009 Roche moved to merge the biotech into its main operations.

Roche achieved healthy sales growth in 2009 but saw a 22% drop in net income due to the cost gaining full control of Genentech and the company’s subsequent restructuring.

Net income fell to CHF 8.5 billion, but total sales were up 8% to CHF 49 billion, led by flu treatment Tamiflu.

Demand for the drug leapt 435% on the back of the swine flu pandemic, rising to CHF 2.6 billion, or 7% of Roche’s total 2009 sales.

Sales of the anti-viral treatment are expected to decrease dramatically in 2010 and if Tamiflu is removed from the figures Roche’s 2009 sales increased by a more modest 4%.

Elsewhere in its portfolio breast cancer treatment Herceptin (trastuzamab) increased 8% to CHF 3.2 billion and colorectal, breast and lung cancer drug Avastin (bevacizumab) rose 21% to CHF 6.2 billion.

Meanwhile, age-related macular degeneration treatment Lucentis (ranibizumab injection) rose 24% to CHF 12 billion.

The company's pharma pipeline now comprises ten new molecular entities in late-stage development which chief executive Severin Schwan called "remarkable by any standards in our industry.”

There were lossess for the company during 2009, the two biggest of which were CellCept and NeoRocormon.

Sales of transplant rejection drug CellCept (mycophenolate mofetil) were down 22% to CHF 1.6 billion and NeoRocormon (epotein beta), which treats anemia in patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) on dialysis, dropped 11% to CHF 1.6 billion.

CellCept’s fall was due to a steep generic competition in the US, while NeoRocormon’s drop in sales was due in large part to price pressures.

Genentech – integrating and restructuring

After acquiring the outstanding shares in the US biotech in March Roche set about restructuring its combined US pharmaceutical business and a number of global functions.

The restructuring and integration costs ran to CHF 2.4 billion, mainly as a result of halting a construction project at its Vacaville, California manufacturing site, shuttering manufacturing operations at Nutley, New Jersey and R&D operations at Palo Alto, California, and consolidating US administrative functions in South San Francisco.

Roche expects mid-single digit growth in both pharma and group sales in 2010, and recently gained FDA approval for rheumatoid arthritis treatment Actemra (tocilizumab) and EMA approval for Herceptin in combination with chemotherapy for use in patients with HER2-positive metastatic gastric cancer.