Name:

Roche

Founded:

1896

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, virology, inflammation,

metabolism

and CNS.

About Roche

Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche’s personalised healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients.

In 2008, Roche had over 81,000 employees worldwide and invested almost 9 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 45.6 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.

Research & Development

Roche believe that finding innovative solutions for serious medical problems is what being a healthcare company is all about. We strive to create clinically differentiated drugs and diagnostics to help people live longer, healthier lives.

Progress in the sciences is providing crucial insights into the molecular mechanisms of disease, opening up new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat illness. As both a diagnostics and a pharmaceuticals company, Roche is ideally placed to contribute towards more personalised medicine.

Roche’s “Personalised Healthcare” approach aims at tailoring medicine more closely to patients’ individual needs. We are confident that, with our outstanding people, cutting-edge

research

and state-of-the-art technology base, we can play a leading role in making healthcare more ‘personal’, and hence safer and more effective.

Roche Diagnostics – Our Vision

Diagnostics are set to play an increasingly important role in the future of healthcare as genetic knowledge presents new and exciting opportunities. Our vision of the future is to strengthen our leading position in diagnostics and shape the health information market by integrating test results and medical information to support medical decision-makers and superior patient management.

This vision drives our pipeline of new products – the broadest in our industry – and will present us with even more opportunities to make a real difference in people’s lives.

Diagnostics Research Centres

About 2,000 scientists – in Mannheim and Penzburg (in Germany), Graz (in Austria),  Rotkreuz and Burgdorf (in Switzerland) and Indianapolis and Pleasanton (in the USA) are committed to developing new diagnostic tools and services for diagnostic laboratories as well as for patient self monitoring.

In addition, Roche Applied Science is dedicated to providing the science community with the best research tools based on the latest scientific and technological advances.

Dedicated centres combine R&D, manufacturing and global marketing support activities in integrated sites in order to bring together.

Roche in the UK and Ireland

Roche is proud to have been part of the UK health environment since 1908. Today, we employ around 2,000 multi-disciplined individuals based at our Pharmaceuticals headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire and at our Diagnostics headquarters in Burgess Hill, West Sussex.

Both teams of

professionals

work together wherever possible to enhance Roche’s offering and reputation in the UK healthcare market liaising closely with healthcare experts, government bodies and patient organisations to add value and to help ensure equal access to products.

Roche Diagnostics in the UK and Ireland

In the UK and Ireland, our £174.5 million Diagnostics business based in Burgess Hill, Sussex, employs over 460 individuals.


As the UK leading provider of diagnostics


solutions, we offer a uniquely broad product portfolio and supply a wide array of innovative

testing

products and services to researchers, physicians, patients, hospitals and laboratories throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Improving the quality of life for millions of people in the UK every day is an overriding goal for Roche Diagnostics Ltd, and, as such our products are designed to empower patients to monitor their own chronic conditions easily and accurately. An example of this is our Accu-Chek and CoaguChek range of innovative self-testing systems for people with diabetes and those receiving anti-coagulation therapy.

With cobas, our professional diagnostics portfolio, our aim is to help the clinicians who care for patients, to detect, monitor and manage medical condition more effectively – providing the right results at the right time and in the right place.

In hospitals for example, our products play two important roles.  Firstly, they are the backbone of laboratory services, providing accurate diagnosis of patient samples either taken at the hospital or in the community. Through our portfolio of instruments – which bring together the latest innovation in clinical chemistry, automated systems and immunodiagnostics – Roche is able to offer hi-tech solutions that provide fast and accurate results for today’s laboratory within an overall simplified process.

The second role within hospitals relates to our portable products which enable the rapid and often life-saving diagnosis of medical conditions when every second counts – in Accident & Emergency, intensive care or in the operating theatre.

Roche pioneered the application of Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technology – the most advanced method in molecular diagnostics and now a recognised industry standard. As the leader in this field, our products enable clinicians to monitor the progression of diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C, and enables healthcare professionals to monitor effectively their patients’ responses to treatment.

Roche’s new tissue diagnostics portfolio, enabled through its recent acquisition of Ventana, means not only does it now occupy a unique position at the forefront of companion diagnostics and advanced tissue staining technology, but also that it has broadened its overall offerings in in-vitro diagnostics and enhanced its stance as the world’s leading personalised healthcare company.

In addition, we are one of the world’s leading manufacturers of research reagents and systems for determining the causes of, or people’s predisposition to, disease. These products and services, focusing on molecular biology, provide scientists with the tools for ground-breaking work in genomics and gene therapy.

The acquisition of NimbleGen has strengthened Roche’s position as a major player and complete solution provider in the genomics research market by extending our activities into the microarray segment.  The Array Systems from NimbleGen are highly synergistic and will complement the existing Roche portfolio of innovative genomic research tools such as the LightCycler qPCR systems and the high-throughput Sequencing Systems from the recently acquired company 454 Life Sciences.

Wherever possible, our diagnostics and pharmaceuticals businesses work together to provide integrated approaches to tackling diseases such as heart failure and Hepatitis C.

Customer Satisfaction

Customers all over the
UK
and Ireland rely on our products, and their confidence has made Roche Diagnostics the number one company in most of the areas in which it does business. We understand our customer needs by maintaining strong relationships with them and we have the industry’s most rigorous customer satisfaction programme.

We strive to exceed our customers’ expectations with a range of services including next-day delivery, a team of fully qualified nurse educators, specialist telephone support, and a network of engineers who are able to respond rapidly to our customers’ needs. Our business is also backed up by a comprehensive Business Continuity plan designed to meet the challenges of the business environment in which we operate.

An Employer of Choice

Our Diagnostics Head Office in Sussex (and similarly our Pharmaceutical Headquarters in Welwyn Garden City) art state-of-the-art facilities comprising of comprehensive customer training suites including a showroom, laboratories, lecture rooms and hospitality facilities.

We have a highly dynamic organisation that nurtures high performance.   The organisation is also committed to Corporate Social Responsibility including developing links with the community and recruiting from the local area and universitiess

Name:

Merck

Founded:

1668

Merck are an extremely old company, originating in 1668.
Merck started out selling alkaloids and chemicals, and grew throughout
the next centuries.

Merck products include prescription drugs that are
either developed or in-licensed by Merck.

Their portfolio specialises in
diabetes, women’s health, feeding tubes, cardiovascular diseases
and cancer. Merck is one of the global market leaders for oral antidiabetics
used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

Name:

Novo Nordisk

Founded:

1923

Novo Nordisk is one of the world leaders in the diabetes care industry. With a strong UK diabetes market presence, Novo Nordisk offer a full range of diabetes products, including

insulin

and insulin delivery devices.

Novo also concentrate on diabetes discovery and development, and frequently feature in breaking

news about diabetes

The global headquarters of Novo Nordisk are in Bagsvaerd in Denmark, but in the UK they are located in Crawley, West Sussex.

Novo have 266 UK employees, and their major focus is on diabetes care.

Novo Nordisk and diabetes care

The diabetes company itself is over 80 years old. Started by a Danish couple, one of whom suffered from

type 2 diabetes

, the company was early in introducing bovine insulin into Europe.

The company diversified into Nordisk and Novo.

Nordisk became the largest global producer of industrial enzymes, whilst Nordisk specialised in developing drugs.

In 1989, the company became Novo Nordisk and combined their efforts in treating diabetes. However, in 1999 the company demerged again and Novo Nordisk and Novozymes are two separate entities.

Their first product for diabetes, Lente, was launched in 1953 and was a long-acting insulin zinc suppression.

This has then followed on with:

• 
  Levemir
  
  – This is a long-acting insulin for injectio, used to treat adults patients with diabetes to control blood sugar levels.
• 
  NovoLog/NovoRapid
  
  – Fast acting insulin for injection.
• 
  NovoMix
  
  – One of their biggest drugs in production and is a mix of 70% insulin aspart protamine suspension and 30% insulin aspart for injection.
• 
  
  Victoza
  
  
  – This is a particular treatment for people with type 2 diabetes in order to prevent hypoglycemia.

Unite for Diabetes campaign

The company has also been a huge supporter for the International Diabetes Federation’s Unite for Diabetes campaign that helped make November 14 every year,

World Diabetes Day

Furthermore, they have launched the Novo Nordisk Changing Diabetes World Tour, which involves a truck that contains an information centre. The truck then visits various countries to raise awareness of diabetes and provide advice. So far they have been to Europen, African, Australia and Asia.

Other areas of healthcare

They also do marketing for other sectors such as haemostasis management, growth hormone therapy and hormone replacement therapy with the help of approximately 31,300 employees across 74 countries.

They are now a member of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) and currently ranked as the 25th best company to work for out of 100 countries in 2010.

Name:

Pfizer

Founded:

1849

Pfizer made their reputation in the US by bulk manufacturing
chemicals for drugs. They had a breakthrough success in 1949 with an antibiotic
drug called Terramycint.

This drug alone catapulted them into being an
international pharmaceutical company. Pfizer moved a compounding operation
to the UK in 1952.

Pfizer is the largest pharmaceutical company
in the UK, and the top supplier of drugs to the NHS. In 2005, over 2 million
UK patients a month were prescribed a Pfizer medicine.

Pfizer invested £600 million in research & development during 2005, one of the
largest R&D investment amounts in the UK. Pfizer are well known as
a diabetes innovator.

Name:

Sanofi Aventis

Founded:

1973

Sanofi is a multinational pharmaceutical company whose headquarters are currently based in Paris, France.

Their UK headquarters are at Guildford in Surrey along with a Clinical Research Unit for clinical trials across the UK and Ireland.

They are currently the world’s fourth largest pharmaceutical company based on their prescription sales. The company itself was founded in 1973 however it went on in 2004 to become Sanofi-Aventis after winning a 54.5 billion Euro bid to merge with Aventis. It is only recently that they have averted back to Sanofi in May 2011.

Aventis was a pharmaceutical and lab assay testing company, which was founded in 1999. The company’s headquarters were based in Strasbourg, France. The company also won various awards for their creation of non-literary science books for adults and children.

Sanofi currently deals with seven major areas:

• Cardiovascular
• Central Nervous System
• Diabetes
• Internal Medicines
• Oncology
• Thrombosis
• 
  Vaccines
  

The company itself is comprised of over 18,000 research staff working in over 21

research

and development centres, across three continents.

The company takes great pride in delivering results and this was illustrated after they spent over £4.8 billion on its portfolio in 2008.

With a expanse range of products that have been developed, they have been successful in creating ones for diabetes to. These are a couple they have manufactured:

• 
  Insulin glulisine (Apidra)
  
  – a rapid-acting insulin for injection.
• 
  Insulin glargine (Lantus)
  
  – a long-acting insulin intended to release over a period of 18-26 hours daily when injected.

The company has also been involved in research projects with other industrial partners such as the Innovative Medicines Initiative of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations.

They have also signed contracts with universities to explore further developments of medicines and therapies.

Name:

Takeda

Founded:

–

The aim of Takeda UK is to ‘make a difference to people’s
lives.’ Takeda aim to solve medical problems allowing individuals
such as diabetics to make health improvements.

Takeda offer effective and
innovative pharmaceutical products to their clients.

Takeda operate under a strong set of beliefs and hold their customers,
including diabetics, in respect.

Takeda deliver what they promise, and
have entered partnerships with several major pharmaceutical companies over
the last decade.

Pioglitazone

Their diabetes compound pioglitazone is effective and
popular in treating

type 2 diabetes

, and is a key treatment option in the
UK.

For their launch of pioglitazone, Takeda won
the Pharmaceutical Company of the year section in the 2001 Pharmaceutical
Marketing Effectiveness Awards.

Takeda is now in the top 30 UK pharmaceutical companies, thanks in part
to their contributions to

diabetes treatment

Takeda are also the fastest
growing pharmaceutical company in the top 50.

Name:

Eli Lilly

Founded:

1876

Eli Lilly was founded by Eli Lilly in 1876 and is now the 10th largest pharmaceutical company in the world. They started their operations in London in 1934.

The company built a major manufacturing plant in Basingstoke in the late 1930s. Lilly have since opened further research and manufacturing centres throughout the world and the UK.

Through extensive partnerships, they have been able to produce medicines at lower costs.

Lilly is consistent as a highly ranked company to work for with around 38,066 employees worldwide. Their main headquarters are base in Indianapolis in the USA.

They currently have research and development facilities located in 8 countries and manufacturing plants in 13 countries. On May 10th this year, they celebrated there 135 years as a successful company.

Eli Lilly had made several major breakthroughs with

diabetes treatments

and the production of insulin.

Their most popular diabetes products are:

• 
  Byetta (Type 2 diabetes)
  
  – A form of exenatide injected beneath the skin 60 minutes before the first and last meal of the day
• 
  Humalog (Types 1 & 2 diabetes)
  
  – Altered forms of insulin that come in two types, the first for quick absorption and the second is a longer releasing form over 8-24 hours.
• 
  Humulin (Types 1 & 2 diabetes)
  
  – Often short-acting insulin.
• 
  Glucagon
  
  – This is for severe cases of
  
  hypoglycemia
  
  and is a hormone that causes the liver to convert stored glycogen into glucose, so that insulin release is stimulated to keep blood sugar levels steady.

Some of their most recent products in 2011 are:

• 
  Bydureon
  
  – An exenatide 2 mg powder and solvent for prolonged release suspension for injections. The first and only once a week glucagon-like peptide for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
• 
  Tradjenta
  
  – Tablets for the treatment of
  
  type 2 diabetes
  

• 
  Axiron
  
  – A topical testosterone solution for replacing the absence of endogenous testosterone in males.

The company has also given a lot to the population of Indiana, USA. They gave $16,322,358 to Indiana’s organizations as well as spending over a billion dollars on more than 1,300 Indiana vendors.

Name:

GlaxoSmithKline

Founded:

2000

GlaxoSmithKline, or ‘Glaxo’ for short are one
of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world.

Their mission is
to develop innovative medicines and products to help millions of patients
throughout the world.

As well as providing diabetes drugs, Glaxo also tackle
the three major ‘priority diseases’ as recognised by the WHO:

• HIV/AIDS
• Tuberculosis
• Malaria

Based in the UK

With an estimated 7 per cent market share of the worlds pharmaceutical market, Glaxo are headquartered in the UK
but extend their reach globally.

Glaxo spend an estimated £300,000
every hour trying to find new medicines.

Their major areas of expertise
are:

• Asthma
• Virus control
• Infections
• Mental health
• Diabetes
• Digestive
  conditions

Name:

Lifescan

Founded:

1886

LifeScan has been a Johnson & Johnson company since 1986, and operate under the J & J credo.

They aim to be fair, honest, respectful and trustworthy in their dealings with customers and communities. Their headquarters are currently based in Milpitas, California with manufacturing facilities in Puerto Rico and Scotland.

Around three million people use their products every day, which are manufactured by more than 2,500 employees worldwide.

In the UK, LifeScan diabetes products are available for purchase from many pharmacies and on NHS prescription.

Throughout the world there are 2,500 LifeScan employees, who supply a broad range of healthcare products that are now highly recommended by doctors, pharmacists and diabetes educators.

LifeScan’s products

LifeScan pioneered blood glucose monitoring through OneTouch Technology, which stopped wiping and timing procedures.

The brand itself offers

blood glucose meters

, test strips, lancing devices and diabetes management software.

In addition, they offer a point-of-care institutio, which provides a 24-hour Health Care Professional (HCP) Hotline for technical support and regulatory diabetes information.

So far the company has developed the following devices such as:

• 
  OneTouch Ultra 2
  
• OneTouch UltraMini
• 
  OneTouch UltraSmart
  
• OneTouch Ultra Control Solution
• OneTouch UltraSoft Lancets

In the UK & Ireland, LifeScan’s OneTouch brand offer blood testers for

insulin

users, free of charge from their customer care team. LifeScan also tries to ensure that people are educated about diabetes through detailed knowledge on there website and other facilities such as the hotline.

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson head LifeScan and as a company, they research science as well as offer a variety of products and services to advance health for all age groups.

Their current portfolio comprises:

• The world’s sixth largest consumer health company
• The world’s largest and most diverse medical devices and diagnostics company
• The world’s fifth largest biologics company
• The world’s eight largest pharmaceuticals company

They currently operate in 250 companies across 60 countries around the world employing approximately 116,000 people. Their current headquarters are in New Brunswick and New Jersey in America.

Some of the well-known products they currently deal with are:

• 
  Listerine
  
  – Dental mouthwash products
• 
  Sudafed
  
  – Cough, cold and allergy relief products
• 
  Visine
  
  – Relief product for eye irritation
• 
  Imodium
  
  – Diarrhea relief products
• 
  Savlon
  
  – Antiseptic cleansers
• 
  Neutrogena
  
  – Skin & hair care products
• 
  Johnson’s skin range
  
  – Moisturizers, baby creams