Roche leads healthcare sector in key sustainability index for fourth consecutive year

Roche  has been recognised as the most sustainable healthcare company globally in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), for the fourth year in a row. The DJSI World and DJSI Europe Indexes track the performance of the leading sustainability companies based on best-in-class approach in environmental, social and economic performance. The indexes serve as benchmarks for investors who integrate sustainability considerations into their portfolios.

“Roche’s ranking as the most sustainable healthcare builds on the continued efforts do business in a way that benefits all our stakeholders. Roche is committed to engaging with communities, patients and public health in a way that creates long-term value for everyone” said Severin Schwan, CEO of Roche. “In particular, we have established goals in diversity and energy savings that are integrated into the incentives for the company’s management and leadership to help drive our activities in these areas. We are also launching new initiatives to expand access to our innovative drugs in emerging markets to enable more people to benefit from our products, while continuing as an international leader in medicine and diagnostics research.”

This year’s DJSI assessment emphasized a number of Roche’s efforts as a sustainable company. They include Roche’s strategy which focuses on medical innovation and its personalised healthcare approach, which addresses healthcare efficiency and improves health outcomes. Roche’s programmes on developing future leaders and respecting human rights were also recognised, together with the company’s pilot programmes for differential pricing in developing countries that aim to expand the number of people able to access Roche medicines.

In 2009 Roche defined a number of five-year corporate goals, with Key Performance Indicators enabling it to measure the progress. Amongst them, Roche introduced a diversity objective to increase the percentage of women in key positions by at least 50 percent, plus an energy efficiency goal of a 10 percent reduction in energy consumption and an increase in energy efficiency by end of 2014.

About the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI)

The DJSI is the most widely accepted global assessment of how companies approach their social, economic and environmental responsibility. The DJS World Index tracks the performance of the top 10% of the 2500 largest companies in the Dow Jones Global Total Stock Market Index, while the DJS Europe Index tracks the performance of the top 20% of the 600 largest European companies that lead the field in terms of sustainability. Annual selection into the DJSI World and DJSI Europe follows a thorough analysis of corporate economic, environmental and social performance by Sustainable Asset Management (SAM), an investment specialist group focused exclusively on sustainability investing. They assess business management practices such as corporate governance, risk management, human resource practices, customer relations, stakeholder engagement and the quality of environmental reporting, in addition to sector-specific elements, such as strategies on access to medicines and innovation in R&D. Roche has been included in the DJSI World and Europe since 2004, and was named Supersector Leader in healthcare in 2009, in 2010 and in 2011.

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.