Basel, 22 June 2018
Changes to the Roche Enlarged Corporate Executive Committee
Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) today announced that Sophie Kornowski-Bonnet, Head of Roche Partnering and member of the enlarged Corporate Executive Committee since 2012, has accepted a new opportunity and will be leaving the company effective 31 July 2018. James Sabry, MD, PhD, currently Head of Partnering for Genentech Research and Early Development (gRED), has been appointed Global Head of Partnering, a role that combines the partnering functions across the Roche pharmaceuticals business, and will become a member of the enlarged Corporate Executive Committee. He will be based in Basel and assume his new role on 1 August 2018.
Roche’s CEO Severin Schwan said: “I am pleased to appoint James Sabry as Global Head of Partnering. James brings a wealth of medical, scientific and business development expertise to successfully identify the best external innovation opportunities and bring them into the Roche Group.” Schwan further commented: “I would like to thank Sophie Kornowski-Bonnet for her many significant contributions over the twelve years of her career at Roche and wish her continued success for the future.”
Prior to joining Genentech in his current role in 2010, James Sabry was CEO of a start-up biotech company and was founder and CEO of Cytokinetics, a biopharmaceutical company in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is an American citizen and completed his MD at Queen’s University in Canada and then did his medical residency in Neurology at Harvard Medical School before further attaining a PhD in Neuroscience from University of California, San Francisco. He continued his research work as a post-doctoral fellow at Stanford Medical School in the Department of Biochemistry.
About Roche
Roche is a global pioneer in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics focused on advancing science to improve people’s lives. The combined strengths of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics under one roof have made Roche the leader in personalised healthcare – a strategy that aims to fit the right treatment to each patient in the best way possible.
Roche is the world’s largest biotech company, with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, ophthalmology and diseases of the central nervous system. Roche is also the world leader in in vitro diagnostics and tissue-based cancer diagnostics, and a frontrunner in diabetes management.
Founded in 1896, Roche continues to search for better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases and make a sustainable contribution to society. The company also aims to improve patient access to medical innovations by working with all relevant stakeholders. Thirty medicines developed by Roche are included in the World Health Organization Model Lists of Essential Medicines, among them life-saving antibiotics, antimalarials and cancer medicines. Roche has been recognised as the Group Leader in sustainability within the Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology & Life Sciences Industry nine years in a row by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI).
The Roche Group, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, is active in over 100 countries and in 2017 employed about 94,000 people worldwide. In 2017, Roche invested CHF 10.4 billion in R&D and posted sales of CHF 53.3 billion. Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information, please visit www.roche.com.