What it does: Mainly manufactures drugs and diagnostic kits
Mission: “Doing now what patient needs next.”
Size and presence: 100.000 employees
Best known for: The largest pharmaceutical company in the world.
The good bits: High standard safety setting within the workforce. Great professional setting to experience for graduates. Offers many programs for students and graduates.
The not-so-good bits: Slow career advancement.
Roche’s story begins in 1896 when Fritz Hoffman-La Roche launched his company in Basel, Switzerland. Roche was known for producing vitamins and derivatives. The company gained its first patent and scientific publication in the same period of time, it was achieved with the contribution of Carl Schaerges, Roche’s first head of research, and chemist Emil C. Barell.
From 1987-1910, the company expanded its business by enlarging its factory and opened offices in Milan, New York, London, and St Petersburg, successfully building strong cooperation between academic circles and commercial developers. During the same period of time, Roche also launched an orange-flavoured cough syrup which immediately gained massive success.
In the 1920-1940s, Roche began to market biochemical products, for example; amino acids, peptides, proteins, cardiac glycosides, vitamins, and hormones. Roche became the market leader for vitamin suppliers, they also mastered the production of synthesis for vitamins A, B1, B2, E, and K1.
Other important success results from Roche are the establishment of Pantene Corporation, the production of tranquillizer and valium, and Roche’s first anti-cancer drugs. The company continued to create a diverse streamline of products throughout the years. Roche was starting to manufacture diagnostic equipment and reagents for research and medical applications.
As of recent development, Roche operates its company in five major areas; Roche Applied Science, Roche Professional Diagnostics, Roche Diabetes Care, Roche Molecular Diagnostics, and Roche Tissue Diagnostics. The headquarter is located in Basel, Switzerland.
As a pharmaceutical company that regularly manufactures drugs and diagnostics, Roche’s setting up a high level of safety within its workforce, especially for those who work in manufacturing. It maintains a high standard to ensure health, safety, and environmental aspects in the production processes. Roche also conducts regular training for the employees to enforce the standard they’re setting.
Many former and current employees testified that Roche is a good place to start off your career in science. The professional setting, standards, and co-workers will give you a good time working at the company. Some claimed that it is still possible to achieve work and life balance. Though, the career advancement may be a bit too slow compared with other pharmaceutical companies.
The company published important details of its hiring process on the website. Roche urges applicants to carefully follow the given steps to provide a good resume since its online application system is using ATS (Applicant Tracking System) which mainly relied on the machine to scan through the applicant’s resumes. The guidance provides information about the best formatting, file format, keywords, and spelling.
After you created a profile in Roche Talent Pool, the HR team will review your application. If you are shortlisted, then a hiring manager will review your application, and if your credentials are matched your skills, then you will be processed for the interview.
The interview will occur in three rounds. The first one is for screening purposes, then it will proceed with an interview with the hiring manager and another team member from Roche. Most former and current employees stated that they’re applying online, and the entire hiring process lasts approximately two weeks to more than a month.
Roche divided career path tracks within the company into seven expertise areas; research & development, people & culture, manufacturing & supply, engineering, digital & technology, commercial, marketing, & communications, and business strategy & development. There are more than 20 job categories in Roche based on those expertise areas.
Furthermore, Roche offers plenty of beneficial programs for students and graduates with specifically formulated workloads and tasks to enhance your skill and allow you to gain invaluable experiences in a professional setting.
Salaries for interns at Roche are ranging from $3.000 to more than $7.000 monthly depending on roles and position. A marketing intern receives $3.700, a finance intern gets $4.100, a product management intern may get $4.000-$5.000, a research and development intern receives $5.000-$7.000, a diagnostic IT receives $4.000, a clinical operation and biometric intern gets $5.000, and a manufacturing engineer intern gets $4.000 monthly.
In the meanwhile, salaries for full-time and permanent employees are variously ranging from $40.000 to more than $100.000 annually depending on roles and position. A research scientist receives $90.000, a sales representative may get $95.000, a software engineer receives $135.000, a business analyst may get $118.000, a data scientist receives $112.000, while a scientist associate (I & II) receives $50.000-$80.000 annually.
Roche has been doing philanthropy activities for years. It aims to strengthen the community and make a long-lasting positive impact. The company’s main focus areas are humanitarian, science and education programs for students and teachers, arts and culture, and community and environment projects, including disaster relief. The company also collaborated with international organizations to maximize its program.
Roche’s recent contribution aimed to help Ukrainians in surviving the war. Roche sent 150.000 packs of antibiotic medicine, and 4.600 packs of specialized medicine for influenza, rheumatoid arthritis, SMA, and various cancers. Roche also donated lab consumables for automatic testing of up to 120.000 blood donations and 31.000 diabetes management.
In 2009, the media reported that Roche had been entangled in a case with its supplier, Pharmed, who also scammed Wyeth and Johnson & Johnson. It was reported that Pharmed had contracts with the three companies to take drugs and supplied them to hospitals. However, through audit processes, it is found that Pharmed had been violating the contract. The supplier company sent Roche’s and the two other companies’ drugs outside the U.S. as per the agreement, however, the drugs were also distributed to Delaware. What baffled the public was that from that case, it was known that pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. are aware of the impossibly expensive drug prices in America. They sell drugs in other countries at a more cheaper and reasonable price due to strict price controls. Whereas in America, pharmaceutical companies are known to sell drugs doubled or even tripled the price due to America’s drug price policy.