Media Release
Basel / Kaiseraugst, 21 January 2010
Roche planning new laboratory building at Kaiseraugst for Quality Control and Quality Assurance
Total investment of about 100 million Swiss francs
Roche is planning a new analytical laboratory building at its Kaiseraugst site near Basel. The new building, which will be part of site development activities, will help to consolidate pharmaceutical production by bringing together Quality Control and some Quality Assurance functions. As of the fourth quarter of 2012, the Quality Control and Quality Assurance staff who are currently housed in various buildings in Basel will carry out all quality activities for drugs manufactured or packed at Kaiseraugst in the new laboratories.
The interior of the new building, which will meet state-of-the-art criteria, has been designed with work procedures in mind. Its open-plan laboratories will feature outstandingly efficient flexibility, work processes and communication. The new building will also see the first-time implementation of the “flow line” concept, under which the entire quality analysis of medicines will be performed in an open plan laboratory. As a result, throughput times will be reduced.
The new building will offer around 150 laboratory and office workplaces spread over five storeys. With its clean-cut, sustainable architecture it will fit in perfectly with the other buildings at Kaiseraugst, as well as satisfying the stringent Swiss Minergie energy efficiency requirements that all Roche new-build projects have to meet. The total investment in the new project will be approximately 100 million Swiss francs.
Preparatory work is scheduled to start in April 2010 once the Kaiseraugst municipal authorities have approved the plans. Actual construction work should start in May 2010.
Roche in Switzerland
With research and development expenditure of around CHF 1.9 billion and investments of over CHF 420 million annually, Roche in Switzerland is an important part of the Roche Group’s global research, development and production network. Roche employs a total of about 9,500 people at Group headquarters in Basel, sites in northwestern and central Switzerland and locations in the Cantons of Berne and Zurich. As a leader in pharmaceuticals and in-vitro diagnostics, Roche generated sales of CHF 509 million in Switzerland in 2008. Further information: www.roche.ch
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