Roche expands its blood screening portfolio

- New solution improves safety of donated blood

ROTKREUZ, Switzerland and PLEASANTON, California, July 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today that it now offers an expanded portfolio of blood screening solutions with an integrated serology testing offering*. Roche is the global leader in the blood screening business based on its long-term success in nucleic acid testing (NAT). The addition of the serology blood screening solution will further enhance its innovative offering for blood centers. The expanded portfolio provides added confidence in the detection of transmitted disease, enhancing the security of the blood supply.

The new platform for blood screening

The new serology offering from Roche utilizes the patented and highly innovative Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) technology for immunodiagnostics, now available to blood and plasma screening laboratories on the scalable and modular cobas 4000, 6000 and 8000 analyzer series. Roche's combined solution of both serology and NAT technologies provide blood and plasma screening laboratories with high sensitivity and specificity on automated platforms designed for workflow efficiency and reliability.

"Roche has pioneered, developed and continued to advance our products to bring innovative solutions to our customers' changing environment. Roche is the one company dedicated to continuous advancement in assay performance, virus coverage and reliable workflow optimization for blood screening," stated Colin Brown, head of Roche Professional Diagnostics. "Our customers are counting on us because the patients they serve are counting on them. We are excited to launch our comprehensive Blood Safety Solutions with the assays, software and systems needed for these highly specialized customers."

About Roche blood and plasma screening

Roche is a leader in the global blood and plasma NAT screening market and has provided continuous innovation since entering this market in 1998. The NAT screening market is estimated at almost 800 million CHF. Currently, more than 250 blood banks and plasma fractionators worldwide use Roche's automated cobas s 201 system.

In serology, Roche's patented ECL technology is a proven and trusted technology in immunodiagnostics performing more than a billion tests a year and is now making its debut in blood screening.

*The serology product range is not available for blood screening settings in Angola, Argentina, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Canada, Guyana, Iraq, Korea D.R., Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, Uganda, and the United States. For all other countries, please contact your local Roche representative to check availability.

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world's largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche's personalized healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2011, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested over 8 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 42.5 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: www.roche.com.

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