- Reuters reports that Roche (OTCQX:RHHBY +0.4%) is stepping up its cost-cutting efforts aimed at dampening the effect of looming biosimilars. CEO Severin Schwan believes the company can fill the sales gap, but expects only moderate topline growth before a "re-acceleration" in 2021-22.
- It recently axed 223 jobs at its Genentech headquarters and intends to streamline its global business units.
- The company projects a sales gap of up to $10B by 2022 due to the encroachment of competitors in cancer, a field that it has dominated for years. Its big three, Rituxan, Herceptin and Avastin, currently account for 40% of sales and all three face biosimilar competition.
- Mr. Schwan says the company will not stray from its long-standing strategy of acquiring small-to-mid-sized companies to shore up its pipeline, eschewing large transactions since the economics "don't work."
- Non-cancer opportunities include treatments for autism, Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease.
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