Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) today announced an initial donation of essential medicines to Ukraine. Roche vehemently condemns the violent invasion of the country.
Roche is working diligently to support the country and people of Ukraine with medical products in accordance with Roche's overall mission and announced today that we are donating 150,000 packages of Rocephin, a critical antibiotic used to treat the symptoms of many kinds of bacterial infections and listed on the World Health Organization's list of essential medicines.
These donations will be delivered to Ukraine as soon as possible to address the urgent need in the country. Roche is working with external partners to facilitate transport into the country despite the current lack of humanitarian corridors into Ukraine.
Roche remains in contact with multiple global and local partners as well as charities to understand how it can best continue to support the people of Ukraine with additional medical supplies. The situation is evolving quickly and further details will be shared when available.
About Roche's response to the situation in Ukraine
Roche's primary focus is doing everything necessary to support our employees and their families in Ukraine. At the same time we are ensuring that our critical medicines and diagnostics reach the people who need them both in Ukraine and other countries impacted by the crisis. We are making every effort to ensure continued supply to Ukraine, Russia and Belarus within the scope of the available possibilities. This includes working through local distributors, using remote support systems for laboratories and working with partners in neighboring countries to set-up blood donation programmes. We are also actively working on solutions to ensure continued access to treatment for Ukrainian patients in ongoing clinical trials, including for those who have left Ukraine and moved to other countries.
About Roche
Founded in 1896 in Basel, Switzerland, as one of the first industrial manufacturers of branded medicines, Roche has grown into the world’s largest biotechnology company and the global leader in in-vitro diagnostics. The company pursues scientific excellence to discover and develop medicines and diagnostics for improving and saving the lives of people around the world. We are a pioneer in personalised healthcare and want to further transform how healthcare is delivered to have an even greater impact. To provide the best care for each person we partner with many stakeholders and combine our strengths in Diagnostics and Pharma with data insights from the clinical practice.In recognising our endeavor to pursue a long-term perspective in all we do, Roche has been named one of the most sustainable companies in the pharmaceuticals industry by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for the thirteenth consecutive year. This distinction also reflects our efforts to improve access to healthcare together with local partners in every country we work.
Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.