Roche’s chief executive to step down and become chair
Roche’s chief executive Severin Schwan will step down next March and has been nominated as chair, after 15 years at the helm of one of the world’s biggest drugmakers by revenue.
Schwan will be succeeded by Thomas Schinecker, head of the diagnostics unit. The board will recommend the outgoing chief executive to replace current chair Christoph Franz, the former Lufthansa chief who has held the role at Roche since 2014.
Schwan joined Roche as a trainee in 1993 and has been at the company his entire career.
Schinecker has overseen one of the company’s most important units during a time of unprecedented demand. Sales at the diagnostics division grew 11 per cent in the first half of the year after the effects of currency fluctuations were stripped out, though demand for Covid-19 tests is expected to decline in the second half.
Revenues at the division have shot up since before the coronavirus pandemic. In the first half of 2019, sales were SFr6.3bn ($6.5bn). In the same period of 2022, they were more than 50 per cent higher.
Roche was the first company to offer a Covid test in China at the beginning of the pandemic and was similarly “very early” when monkeypox started to spread this year, Schwan said.
Jefferies analysts said in a note that Schinecker’s appointment “likely surprises many” given the company’s focus on speciality pharmaceuticals, which were central to Schwan’s plan to overcome the “patent cliff” — the loss of monopoly rights on legacy blockbuster drugs.
But Schwan told reporters on Thursday that there would be no major changes in the company’s plans.
“The strategy as it stands will continue. And of course, we want to evolve both our businesses, pharma and diagnostics,” Schwan said. “I don’t see any structural or other changes on a strategic level with the appointment of Thomas Schinecker.”
In a statement, Schinecker said: “I am excited about the future innovations we will bring to patients around the globe.”
Schwan stressed Roche’s tradition of “long-term continuity, especially at the top” and how this was reflected in its succession planning.
Schwan was himself the head of Roche diagnostics before he became group chief executive.
The company’s net income grew 12 per cent to SFr9.2bn in the first half. Group sales grew five per cent to SFr32.3bn. It also confirmed its outlook for the year, with overall sales expected to be stable or grow in the low-single digits.
Sales of Covid drugs and tests are expected to decrease by about SFr2bn to SFr5bn.