Roche Holding AG will fold its stand-alone diabetes business into its broader diagnostics unit after a decade and a half of declining sales.
The Swiss company said Friday it will “define the organizational and structural changes and their potential impact in the coming months.” Employee headcount at Roche overall will remain stable in 2024 compared to this year, the company also said.
Sales at the diabetes business, which makes blood sugar monitoring equipment, have been in a long downward slide since 2007. Roche faced price cuts and lagged competitors in new technologies such as continuous glucose monitoring, in which a tiny sensor placed underneath the skin reduces the need for needle pricks. Investment in a smartphone app called mySugr failed to reverse the decline.
Roche, which sells both drugs and diagnostics, is under pressure to improve its pipeline of new medicines after a series of clinical trial setbacks. The shares are down 16% this year, compared with a 7% increase in the Bloomberg Europe Pharmaceutical Index.
In 2017, the company considered options for the business including a sale, people close to the deliberations said at the time.
Inside Paradeplatz previously reported the reorganization at the diabetes unit, saying that Roche would cut hundreds of jobs.
