Dive Brief:
- Roche is investing approximately $1 billion in increasing its manufacturing capacity.
- Most of its increased capacity ($900 million) will be for manufacturing biologics; however, $135 million is slated for small-molecule manufacturing.
- This expansion is driven by Roche’s strong earnings for Q1 2014 and overall.
Dive Insight:
Roche’s first-quarter earnings--$13 billion---were up 5% year over year, reflecting the profitability of the company’s oncology franchise—the largest in the world. Much of the profit comes from biologics, including Kadcyla, Rituxan, Herceptin and the recently approved Perjeta. Perjeta, which is used for the treatment of advanced HER2-positive breast cancer, has anticipated sales in the $2 million to $5 million range.
The main challenge for the company now is capacity. They are addressing this challenge with an investment of more than $1 billion in manufacturing facilities, with roughly $900 million for biologics manufacturing facilities and $135 million to increase capacity for manufacturing small-molecule drugs. Roche expects the new facilities to become operational between June 2015 and September 2016.