Marana, Ariz. – Mayor Ed Honea joined Roche Tissue Diagnostics leaders and employees for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the expansion of manufacturing operations in Marana.
Click here for a link to b-roll and photography from the event.
(left to right) Ed Honea, Marana Mayor, Jill German, Head of Roche Tissue Diagnostics, Kent Kost, Global Head of Roche Diagnostics Operations, and Himanshu Parikh, Vice President, Global Operations, Roche Tissue Diagnostics
When fully completed, the new Marana building will house instrument and service manufacturing, along with instrument labeling and operations support functions such as engineering, purchasing, planning and finance. Roche Tissue Diagnostics manufactures more than 250 cancer tests and associated instruments – used everyday by hospitals and diagnostic labs – from its Tucson-area operations, impacting the lives of more than 27 million patients around the world annually.
The new 60,000-square-foot Marana manufacturing building is powered 100% by local renewable electricity and features state-of-the-art manufacturing space, meeting rooms and a multi-purpose cafe breakroom. Approximately 140 employees will transfer from Roche’s Oro Valley campus headquarters to Marana, for a total of approximately 180 personnel based in Marana and more than 1,800 in the Tucson area. The new building is expected to be fully operational in early 2023.
Relocating instrument assembly to Marana will make the manufacturing process more efficient, reducing the need to transport parts to Oro Valley for assembly into products. It will also make room for the expansion of diagnostic assay production on the Oro Valley campus, allowing Roche Tissue Diagnostics to better serve a growing number of customers and patients globally. Every year across the globe, more than 14 million people develop cancer, a number that is expected to grow to more than 21 million by the year 2030.
Roche’s total investment in this project is approximately $43.5 million, which includes remodeling the Oro Valley manufacturing space beginning in 2023.
“Expanding our manufacturing facilities will enable us to provide customers – and ultimately patients – with reliable access to quality cancer diagnostics, no matter where they are in the world,” said Jill German, Head of Roche Tissue Diagnostics. “With this new building in Marana and remodeling in Oro Valley, we are continuing to invest in Southern Arizona’s bioscience industry while offering meaningful career opportunities to members of our local community.”
The Marana ribbon-cutting comes on the heels of the completion of two major construction projects on the Oro Valley campus. A new 45,000-square-foot Employee Forum, which includes state-of-the-art conference space, a full-service cafeteria with rotating local restaurants and a fitness and wellness center, opened in April. A 9,000-square-foot Central Utility Plant was also constructed to provide cooling to all buildings on the main campus.
For more information, please contact:
Jay Kern
jay.kern@roche.com
317-513-6367
About Roche Tissue Diagnostics
Employing more than 1,800 employees in the Tucson area, Roche Tissue Diagnostics innovates and manufactures instruments and reagents that automate tissue processing and slide staining for cancer diagnostics. VENTANA products are used in clinical histology and drug development research laboratories worldwide. The company’s intuitive, integrated staining and workflow management platforms and digital pathology solutions optimize laboratory efficiencies to support diagnosis, help reduce errors and enable informed treatment decisions. Together with Roche, the company is driving personalized healthcare through accelerated drug discovery and the development of companion diagnostics to identify the patients most likely to respond favorably to specific therapies.
About Roche
Founded in 1896 in Basel, Switzerland, as one of the first industrial manufacturers of branded medicines, Roche has grown into the world’s largest biotechnology company and the global leader in in-vitro diagnostics. The company pursues scientific excellence to discover and develop medicines and diagnostics for improving and saving the lives of people around the world. We are a pioneer in personalized healthcare and want to further transform how healthcare is delivered to have an even greater impact. To provide the best care for each person we partner with many stakeholders and combine our strengths in Diagnostics and Pharma with data insights from the clinical practice.
In recognizing our endeavor to pursue a long-term perspective in all we do, Roche has been named one of the most sustainable companies in the pharmaceuticals industry by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for the thirteenth consecutive year. This distinction also reflects our efforts to improve access to healthcare together with local partners in every country we work.
Genentech, in the United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche is the majority shareholder in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan.
For more information, please visit www.roche.com.
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