Change to the Roche Corporate Executive Committee

Roche today announced that John C. Reed, M.D., Ph.D., has been appointed Head of Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) and member of the enlarged Corporate Executive Committee. He will be based in Basel and assume his new role on April 2, 2013, reporting to Severin Schwan, CEO of the Roche Group. Mike Burgess, currently ad interim Head of pRED, has decided to leave Roche. The Genentech Research and Early Development organization (gRED), based in South San Francisco, is not affected by this management change.

Commenting on the appointment, Severin Schwan said: “We are delighted to welcome John Reed to Roche, who has led one of the world’s top laboratory-based medical research institutes. With his broad scientific and medical background he is ideally positioned to drive Roche’s strategy of translating a better understanding of disease mechanisms into promising therapeutics.” Schwan further: “I would like to thank Mike Burgess for his valuable contributions to Roche. Mike has been instrumental in refocusing the pRED organization during the past few months.”

John C. Reed (54), who is an American citizen, earned his M.D. and Ph.D. at the School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Roche he has been CEO at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute in La Jolla, California. He is one of the world’s leading biomedical researchers with a focus on cancer, neuroprotection, autoimmunity, and other diseases. John Reed has authored several hundred medical research publications and is among the world’s most highly cited scientists for his research contributions. He is an inventor of more than one hundred patents, a member of multiple scientific journal editorial boards, and the founder or co-founder of a number of biotechnology companies. He has also served on the Boards of Directors of several public biopharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Said John Reed, “I am honored to join the Roche organization and continue the company’s superb legacy of developing innovative new medicines for patients in need.”