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Roche Holding AG – Company History
Roche Holding AG is a Swiss healthcare group of companies engaged in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. It was founded in 1896 by Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche and is based in Basel, Switzerland.
From its inception to the turn of the 20th century, the Hoffmann-La Roche company expanded and internationalised through its pharmaceutical products and preparations. One of its early successes was Sirolin, an orange-flavoured, non-prescription cough syrup that remained on the market for over 60 years. The company grew due to the strength of its vitamin business while diversifying its portfolio of pharmaceuticals ranging from antidepressants to chemotherapy.
By 2000, the company had branched into two core divisions: diagnostics and pharmaceuticals. Later in that decade, biotech pioneer Genentech and other key life science, gene sequencing and tissue diagnostic companies were acquired.
Today, Roche is the world’s leader in biotech, with 17 biopharmaceuticals on the market. It operates in more than 100 countries with a workforce of over 90,000 and annual revenue of nearly $57 billion. The Roche Group has ranked on Fortune’s Global 500 list for 24 years and was recognised as the most sustainable healthcare company in the Dow Jones 2018 Sustainability Indices.
- Family name: Hoffman and Oeri families
- Sector: Life Sciences
- Founded: 1896
- Founder: Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche
- Country: Switzerland
- Company headquarters: Basel, Switzerland
- Managers: Severin Schwan
- Revenue: US$50.3 billions
- Rankings: 169 [Fortune 500]
- Family ownership: 50.1%
- Employees: 91,747
- Website: ww.roche.com
