Roche suffers drug setbacks

A run of disappointing drug trials at Roche has left analysts suggesting the view from its new 41-storey office building in Basel, Switzerland, has become more clouded, with little chance of management now upgrading its growth forecast next week, when it reports first-half earnings.

Moreover, the first of a threatened flood of bio- similar copies of Roche’s $22bn (€19bn)-per-year trio of cancer drugs, Rituxan, Avastin and Herceptin, have now been approved in Europe and the US.

Chief executive Severin Schwan has long contended he can boost sales despite these new bio-similar drug launches.