Roche lines up products, including entry into opthalmology, in 2023

Armed with a technology-reinforced supply chain, Swiss drugmaker, Roche Pharma, expects to bring into India, products in the oncology and rare diseases therapy segments, besides making an entry into opthalmology in 2023.

Roche will bring in three more molecular entities, line extensions, a second rare diseases product, and make an entry into opthalmology, besides bringing in several personalised healthcare medicines, said V Simpson Emmanuel, Managing Director and CEO with Roche Pharma (India). The last two years were both eventful and challenging, Emmanuel told businessline, adding that the forthcoming year would continue to see the introduction of significant products in India, close to their global launches.

This comes even as Roche launched the next version of its patient-assistance Blue Tree programme, now in its seventh year. The Blue Tree 2.0 mobile app is for existing patients on the programme, making it easier to access the several diversified services (across financial assistance, physiotherapy, doorstep delivery, etc.) through their phones.

Since the launch of the programme in March 2015, over 11,000 patients have been supported, Emmanuel said, adding that the online programme and app was entirely handled by Tata 1mg, in line with data privacy laws.

Research spends

Pointing out that Roche had differential pricing on its products for India, besides other approaches to improve access to its medicines, Emmanuel said, the patient assistance programme was dynamic, incorporating doctor and patient feedback. There is no “cookie-cutter” approach, he said, responding to civil society observation that patient assistance programmes in general were limited in their scope.

Responding to a query on the recent inclusion of cancer drugs in the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) and discussions on bringing more patented drugs into their ambit, Emmanuel said, their parent company was among the highest spenders on research and development, developing innovative products, and identifying solutions for unmet medical needs. And this needed to be respected, he said. The company on its part was looking to bring in innovation and technology to help bring down the cost to the patient and overall societal cost, he added.