Roche sales and marketing update

Roche's Genentech Inc. unit announced that cancer drugs Avastin bevacizumab and Herceptin trastuzumab and cancer and autoimmune drug Rituxan rituximab will only be available to hospitals and clinics through six authorized specialty distributors, including the McKesson Plasma and Biologics unit of McKesson Corp. (NYSE:MCK, San Francisco, Calif.) and the Cardinal Health Specialty Distribution unit of Cardinal Health Inc. (NYSE:CAH, Dublin, Ohio). Genentech said the move was not made in response to a quality issue but that it hopes the new model will "best serves patient safety and patient access." Sales for the first nine months of 2014 for Rituxan were CHF2.5 billion ($2.6 billion), for Avastin CHF2 billion ($2.1 billion), and for Herceptin CHF1.5 billion ($1.5 billion). ...