Roche Partnering Casts Wide Net To Expand Company’s Neuroscience Pipeline

Tom Zioncheck, head of neuroscience, ophthalmology and rare diseases partnering for Roche and Genentech Inc., told Scrip that 2019 was a “remarkable” year for the company’s pharma partnering group, because the team negotiated 80 significant transactions. That number includes several deals in neuroscience – a therapeutic area where the Swiss big pharma hopes to create a presence similar to its dominant position in oncology.

Zioncheck noted in an interview during the recent J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco that Roche is building on the success it has seen in neuroscience with the instant multiple sclerosis blockbuster Ocrevus (ocrelizumab) by licensing and acquiring new molecular entities and new technology platforms across a wide range of neurological diseases and therapeutic modalities