Roche heritage
Roche is…
A global pioneer in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics advancing science to improve people’s lives — doing now what patients need next.
An Industrial Age entrepreneur
Founded in 1896 as a research-driven company committed to innovation, F. Hoffman-La Roche & Co. quickly became a multinational, then international organization.
Roche’s operations were hindered significantly by World War I, but its optimism and vision persevered, as did its standing in the scientific community.
An innovator in cancer care and biomedical research
Research, vitamin and pharmaceutical production led to the development of our first anti-cancer drug in 1962, launching our activities in the field of cancer care.
Just three years later, Roche diversified across the entire spectrum of healthcare, establishing electronic medical instrument groups in Switzerland and the United States, including a diagnostics department in 1968.
Apart from developing diagnostic tests and automatic analyzers, objectives included setting up service laboratories to perform clinical analyses for hospitals and office-based physicians.
Starting in the mid-1990s, we developed a series of innovative drugs for cancer treatment. Herceptin®, a novel treatment for metastatic breast cancer, targets and blocks the function of HER2. MabThera® increases the time patients with the most common form of leukemia live without their cancer progressing.
