What Does Roche Offer?
Roche primarily serves the pharmaceuticals and diagnostics products markets. The company discovers, develops, and sells pharmaceutical products globally. Its drugs are used for the treatment of various types of diseases, including cancer, heart-related, and infectious, among others. Roche is a Swiss healthcare company with a global presence. The firm operates in two main segments: Pharmaceuticals and Diagnostics. The pharmaceutical segment produces drugs in various therapeutic segments, primarily Oncology, Immunology, Neuroscience, Anti-Infectious, and Ophthalmology. Roche has the largest oncology drug market share in the world with a range of successful products, such as Avastin, Herceptin, and Rituxan. The company also has a leading market position in in-vitro diagnostics. It reports its in vitro diagnostics segment into four categories: Centralized And Point of Care Solutions, Tissue Diagnostics, Molecular Diagnostics, and Diabetes Care.
Who Pays?
Chain stores (Walgreens, CVS, Rite-Aid, Walmart), clinics, long term care facilities, health maintenance organizations, federal facilities, non-federal institutions, mail order pharmacies, and retail stores.
What Are The Alternatives?
Within pharmaceuticals, other alternatives are Bristol-Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Merck, Abbvie, GlaxoSmithKline, and Teva, among others. Outside of pharmaceuticals, other alternatives are acupuncture, aromatherapy, ayurvedic medicine, chiropractic care, homeopathy, and nutritional counseling, among others. In Diagnostics, Roche competes with Abbott Labs, Siemens, GE Healthcare, Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, and Hitachi Medical Corp, among others.
Has 7 Operating Segments:
Oncology Drugs : Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with different type of cancers. It is concerned with the diagnosis, therapy (surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and other modalities) and care of patients with cancer, screening efforts of populations and follow-up care for successful cancer treatments. Roche, along with its American subsidiary Genentech, is the biggest player in the oncology market. It owns some of the best-selling brands including Avastin, Rituxan and Herceptin. Roche is a pioneer in oncology research with a very high success rate in early diagnosis and targeted therapy.
In Vitro Diagnostics : Diagnostic tests are medical tests performed to help in detection of diseases, conditions, or infections. Roche's In Vitro Diagnostics segment has four subsegments: Centralised And Point of Care Solutions, Diabetes Care, Molecular Diagnostics and Tissue Diagnostics. Professional diagnostic helps in identifying indications in various therapeutic areas such as oncology, cardiovascular, virology, and infectious diseases. Key Professional Diagnostics’ product are CoaguChek and Accu-Chek. Roche’s diabetes care is focused on developing diagnostic instruments for detection of diabetes and also helps in glucose monitoring. Roche's molecular diagnostics business helps to identify molecular characteristics of a disease. Tissue diagnostics helps in tissue processing and cancer diagnostics through slide staining.
Immunology Drugs : Immunology area deals with diseases in which the immune system attacks the body's own cells. These diseases include rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, addison's disease, multiple sclerosis, and type I diabetes. This division includes Roche’s Cellcept, Mabthera/Rituxan, Actemra/RoActemra among others. CellCept is a medication to fight the body's own immune system, which can reject a kidney, liver, or heart transplant.
Other Therapeutic Drugs : This represents Roche's drugs in other therapeutic areas (excluding the other segments), including metabolism, cardiovascular, and Haemophilia A among others.
Neuroscience Drugs : Revenues reported in this division consist of Roche's central nervous system drugs. In the entire central nervous system drugs market, antidepressants, anti-psychotics and anti-epileptics are the largest segments having a combined market share of more than 60%.
Opthalmology Drugs : Ophthalmology is a branch of medicine which finds treatments for eye related diseases. Roche currently has only one drug, Lucentis, in ophthalmology which it developed in collaboration with Novartis. Lucentis is an injectable medicine for the treatment of patients with Wet Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). There is another drug in phase 3 developmental stage.
Infectious Diseases Drugs : Infectious diseases are diseases caused by viruses or similar agents. These diseases are highly infectious in nature and are usually not detected at an early stage, which makes them difficult to target. There are about several kinds of viruses which cause diseases in human beings. Some common viral diseases are influenza, HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis. This division includes Roche’s Pegasys, Valcyte/Cymevene, Tamiflu among others.
