Hoffmann-La Roche - History

History

Founded in 1896 by Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche, the company was early on known for producing various vitamin preparations and derivatives. In 1934, it became the first company to mass produce synthetic vitamin C, under the brand name Redoxon. In 1957 it introduced the class of tranquilizers known as benzodiazepines (with Valium and Rohypnol being the best known members). Its acne drug isotretinoin, marketed as Accutane and Roaccutane, also used as a form of chemotherapy for some cancers, has been linked with a number of severe side effects and remains highly controversial but highly effective at the same time. Roche has also produced various HIV tests and antiretroviral drugs. It bought the patents for the polymerase chain reaction technique in 1992. It manufactures and sells several cancer drugs.

In 1976, an accident at a chemical factory in Seveso, Italy owned by a subsidiary of Roche caused a large dioxin contamination; see Seveso disaster.

In 1982, the United States arm of the company acquired Biomedical Reference Laboratories for US$163.5 million. That company dated from the late 1960s, and was located in Burlington, North Carolina. That year Hoffmann–La Roche then merged it with all of its laboratories, and incorporated the merged company as Roche Biomedical Laboratories, Inc. in Burlington. By the early 1990s, Roche Biomedical became one of the largest clinical laboratory networks in the United States, with 20 major laboratories and US$600 million in sales.

On April 28, 1995 Hoffmann–La Roche sold Roche Biomedical Laboratories, Inc. to National Health Laboratories Holdings Inc. (which then changed its name to Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings). Roche acquired Syntex in 1994 and Chugai Pharmaceuticals in 2002.

On 12 March 2009 Roche agreed to fully acquire Genentech, in which it had held a majority stake since 1990, after 8 months of negotiations. As a result of the Genentech acquisition, Roche closed its Palo Alto based research facilities and moved them to Nutley while the US Headquarters in Nutley was moved to Genentech's facility in South San Francisco. Genentech became a wholly owned subsidiary group of Roche on 25 March 2009.

In 2011, the company received the ISPE Facility of the Year Award for Process Innovation for Roche’s “MyDose” Clinical Supply project.

On 26 June 2012 Roche announces closure of Nutley, NJ site Business operations to cease by end of 2013; site plant to be shut down by end of 2015 As of 28 June 2012 The RocheUSA.com portal for Nutley still indicated that "To maintain our innovative focus, the 127-acre site in New Jersey is expanding its research base and will become one of the largest R&D centers for Roche. Nutley is the center for the Oncology, Inflammation and Virology Discovery and Translational Areas (DTAs). These areas have a rich pipeline comprised of novel first-in-class and best-in-class compounds and have at their disposal the expertise of scientists in Discovery Technologies." But the NYTimes reported on 26 June 2012 that "Roche, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, said Tuesday that it would shut down its site in Nutley, N.J., which served as its American headquarters for 80 years, in an effort to cut costs. About 1,000 jobs would be lost, the company said."