Roche names new UK general manager

Roche has announced that Richard Erwin as its new UK general manager, based on its Welwyn Garden City site in Hertfordshire.

Mr Erwin has been with the company for 27 years and has spent the last two years as general manager for Roche's operations in  Belgium and Luxembourg, where he worked with clinicians and the health service to successfully overcome key challenges.

He joins the firm at a time when Roche is looking at ways of improving access to medicines among UK patients, examining real-world outcomes and the societal impact of its therapies, as well as accounting for the changes taking place within the NHS.

In the last five years, Roche has made five new cancer medicines available in the UK, with more than 30 new drugs in the pipeline.

Mr Erwin said: "At Roche, we feel confident that we can help find solutions to deliver even better healthcare. We need to look at the clinical value our medicines bring to patients and not just focus on cost effectiveness."

The firm saw a year-on-year increase of six percent in sales during the first nine months of 2015, allowing the company to raise its guidance for the full year.