People In Brief
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Diagnostic exec to take charge at Roche: Roche Diagnostics CEO Severin Schwan will succeed Franz Humer as CEO of Roche next March, the drug and diagnostics giant announced July 19. Humer will remain chairman of the company's board. A new diagnostics chief has yet to be announced. Schwan is leading Roche's $3 billion hostile takeover of Ventana Medical Systems, an acquisition aimed at providing the company with platform technology for tissue-based diagnostic tests to pair with targeted cancer drugs (1"The Gray Sheet" July 2, 2007, p. 10). The exec has also led several other acquisitions in the diagnostics unit during the first half of the year, including the purchase of high-throughput firm 454 Life Sciences, research microarray firm NimbleGen and BioVeris...
You may also be interested in...
Abbott Diagnostics Unit Teams Up With Big Pharma On Companion Test
Abbott's molecular diagnostics business announced March 7 a collaboration with Genentech, Roche and OSI Pharmaceuticals to develop a gene test that helps select patients more likely to respond to the lung cancer drug Tarceva
Abbott Diagnostics Unit Teams Up With Big Pharma On Companion Test
Abbott's molecular diagnostics business announced March 7 a collaboration with Genentech, Roche and OSI Pharmaceuticals to develop a gene test that helps select patients more likely to respond to the lung cancer drug Tarceva
People In Brief
Diagnostics and diabetes at Roche: Jürgen Schwiezer will take the helm of Roche's diagnostics business in January, the firm announces Oct. 2. He will succeed Severin Schwan, who will become CEO of the Swiss drug and diagnostic company in March (1"The Gray Sheet" July 23, 2007, p. 10). Schwiezer is Roche Diagnostic's president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, the unit's largest market region. Also on Oct. 2, Roche announced that Burkhard G. Piper, who heads the diabetes care division, will report directly to the company CEO beginning in January, rather than reporting to Schwiezer. Roche says it is not creating a separate diabetes business unit to join its pharmaceutical and diagnostic units, but the direct CEO report signals its intention to be more aggressive in the diabetes space, where it holds the number one worldwide position in blood glucose monitors (Accu-Chek) and number two in insulin infusion. Meanwhile, Roche is set to lose its top spot in the worldwide clinical laboratory diagnostics market with Siemens' imminent acquisition of Dade Behring (2"The Gray Sheet" July 30, 2007, p. 4)