BioCentury
ARTICLE | Company News

Roche cancer, autoimmune news

October 21, 2013 7:00 AM UTC

Over the next five years, Roche will invest CHF800 million ($879.2 million) to increase production capabilities for its biologics, including cancer drugs Perjeta pertuzumab and Kadcyla ado-trastuzumab emtansine and autoimmune drug Actemra/ RoActemra tocilizumab. The investment will be spread across sites in Penzberg, Germany; Basel, Switzerland; Vacaville, Calif.; and Oceanside, Calif. The pharma said it will invest about CHF260 million ($285.7 million) in the U.S. sites, which will create about 250 jobs; about CHF350 million ($384.7 million) in the Germany site, which will create about 200 jobs; and about CHF190 million ($208.8 million) in a new antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) production facility in Basel, which will create 50 jobs. Roche said it has 39 investigational biologics in its pipeline, including eight ADCs in clinical development.

Perjeta, a humanized mAb HER dimerization inhibitor that prevents HER2 from binding to other HER receptors ( HER1/EGF; HER3 and HER4), is approved in the U.S. and EU for treatment-naïve patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer in combination with Herceptin trastuzumab and docetaxel and in Japan to treat HER2-positive inoperable or recurrent breast cancer. This month, FDA granted accelerated approval to Perjeta from Roche's Genentech Inc. unit for neoadjuvant breast cancer. Genentech markets Herceptin in the U.S., while Roche markets it elsewhere. Chugai, which is majority owned by Roche, has Japanese rights from the pharma to the product (see BioCentury, Oct. 7). ...