EPO plant: Biologics III comes on stream
Roche invests in bioproduction plants

Covering 310 000 square meters, the Roche site in Penzberg/Germany is one of Europe’s biggest biotechnology centers. Only recently the foundation stone was laid there for a new facility called Biologics IV, which will cost e290 million to build. At the same time Roche was able to open its Biologics III facility for the production of EPO.

At the Penzberg Competence Center for Research, Development and Production of Biotechnology Substances for Diagnostics and Therapy you will find the accumulated experience of 60 years of biochemistry and biotechnology. And this experience seems to be paying off. The Roche Group currently has 13 bio-pharmaceuticals on the market and a promising looking biotechnology pipeline. With its five strongest bio-pharmaceuticals, the world’s second biggest biotechnology company makes more than 50 per cent of its sales. The Biologics IV production building will be used in the future to produce the monoclonal antibody trastuzumab, a substance for treating breast cancer. In the recently opened Biologics III facility the company is producing erythropoietin (EPO), a hormone for the treatment of anaemia.

Dr. Franz B. Humer, President of the Board of Roche Holding AG and CEO of the Roche Group: “We believe that in the next ten to fifteen years the production of antibodies in the treatment of cancer will increase greatly in importance.” And Roche wants to shape this trend as a front runner.
200 new jobs were created at Penzberg/Germany
Antibodies are among the new, clinically differentiated pharmaceutical ingredients being used in cancer treatment. This class of ingredient also includes the innovative trastuzumab, which Roche plans to take to market from the Penzberg Biologics IV facility starting in 2009. Trastuzumab is the first antibody-based therapy for the treatment of advanced breast cancer. The active ingredient is aimed at a particularly aggressive type of this cancer. New studies indicate that the substance might also be successful in early treatment. Erythropoietin (EPO), one of the first bio-pharmaceuticals to be produced in Germany, is now the second most successful of all Roche products. The hormone controls the formation of red blood corpuscles in the body.
Technologies and processes are bundled to one site
Above all patients with kidney trouble suffer from anaemia and, as a result, from oxygen deficiency. However, anaemia can also occur during chemotherapy and HIV therapy and be also treated with EPO. Erythropoietin is one of the most frequently used genetically produced active ingredients worldwide. Obviously there are good reasons why Roche is concentrating on its Penzberg location. At no other Roche production site are diagnostics and pharmaceutics represented together with activities in research, development and production. All technologies and processes are bundled at one site, and it is precisely this proximity which creates huge advantages in terms of productivity and innovation. “With investments of a good half a billion Euros we are not only reinforcing the importance of Roche Penzberg as one of the biggest biotechnology sites in Europe—above all we catering to the rapidly increasing demand for our innovative biopharmaceuticals, which mean a great improvement in the quality or indeed length of life for many patients,” says Humer.