Fritz Hoffman-La Roche founded Roche in Basel, Switzerland in 1896 during the European industrial revolution. Within the first few years, company pharmacist Carl Shaerges and chemist Emil C. Barell successfully developed the first in a series of thyroid medications. In 1898, they also produced a non-prescription cough syrup called Sirolin, which was combined with an orange-flavored syrup.
Despite the devastating effects both World Wars had on Roche, it quickly recovered thanks to its line of vitamins, and became the first company to mass-produce synthetic vitamin C. However, its rise was marred with controversy in 1999, when the company pled guilty to a worldwide conspiracy to raise and fix prices for its vitamins, forcing it to pay $500 million in criminal fines. Today, the company has a hand across the entire spectrum of the healthcare industry and its best-known products include benzodiazepines, a class of psychoactive drugs, Valium and Rohypnol.
Roche Holding AG has a strategic alliance with Wisconsin Diagnostic Laboratories. The company was founded in 1896 and is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland.