Roche and Hitachi renew alliance in the diagnostics business

Rotkreuz/Switzerland

April 9, 2014

The extended 10-year agreement strengthens Roche’s pioneering market position

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) and Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (TSE:8036, Hitachi High-Tech) today announced the signing of a renewed 10-year contract for the joint development and manufacture of the next generation of instruments and workflow automation solutions for medical laboratories. The renewed alliance marks a significant milestone towards new platform solutions in Roche’s immunochemistry and clinical chemistry business that will help laboratories meet future needs.

The agreement follows a successful 36-year partnership that yielded a number of industry-first innovations in modular designed analyser platforms and workflow automation instruments for the laboratory’s serum work area. This resulted in more than 55,000 installations in immunodiagnostics and clinical chemistry worldwide.

The new agreement is an important new chapter for us as we’re entering a new generation of modular laboratory solutions over the next few years. Thanks to an ideal combination of both parties’ expertise, our diagnostics solutions allow customers to choose from the broadest set of instruments available for each laboratory setting. Apart from that, we enjoy a competitive advantage from an expanding selection of over 100 different tests in immunochemistry alone, the benchmark in the industry for a consolidated instrument series, stated Jean-Claude Gottraux, Head of Roche Professional Diagnostics.

Concurrent with our future platform strategy, Hitachi High-Tech is contributing to Roche’s concept of addressing the various needs of healthcare professionals with customised and modular solutions that help consolidate and integrate complex laboratory workflows across the whole work chain. The renewed agreement allows both companies to apply their strengths more effectively, and we expect the result to be continuing success for all of us, said Yasukuni Koga, Head of the Medical Systems Sales and Marketing Division, Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation.

Collaboration began in 1978, when the two companies teamed up on the sale and development of automated analysers for the clinical laboratory testing of body fluids. Since then, a new generation of laboratory solutions has paved the way for a sequence of industry-first innovations under the cobas^® name. Today, cobas instruments represent the industry benchmark owing to the flexibility, accuracy, speed and medical value they provide for clinical decision-making worldwide. Combined with the Elecsys^® electroluminescence (ECL) testing technology, they augment the powerhouse of Roche’s immunochemistry line-up.

About Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation

Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is engaged in activities in a broad range of fields, including Electronic Device Systems, Fine Technology Systems, Science & Medical Systems, Industrial & IT Systems, and Advanced Industrial Products. The company’s consolidated sales for FY2012 amounted to more than 570 billion Japanese Yen. For further information, visit http://www.hitachi-hitec.com/global/.

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world’s largest biotech company, with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology and neuroscience. Roche is also the world leader in in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and a frontrunner in diabetes management. Roche’s personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostics that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. Founded in 1896, Roche has been making important contributions to global health for more than a century. Twenty-four medicines developed by Roche are included in the World Health Organisation Model Lists of Essential Medicines, among them life-saving antibiotics, antimalarials and chemotherapy.

In 2013 the Roche Group employed over 85,000 people worldwide, invested 8.7 billion Swiss francs in R&D and posted sales of 46.8 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information, please visit www.roche.com.

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