Roche Continents

From October 5 – 8, eight top fundraisers from around the world traveled to Malawi to see first-hand how donations raised in the 2011 Roche Children’s Walk are helping children in need. Three colleagues from Basel Headquarters accompanied the ambassadors, helping to facilitate visits to the several institutions that are supported by Roche. The ambassadors were selected in a drawing among the top fundraisers identified from more than 100 participating sites that supported the 2011 Children’s Walk on June 16, the Day of the African Child.

“I feel proud to be a Roche employee”, said Denise Horato, ambassador from Sao Paulo, Brazil, reflecting on her experiences. With Malawi facing adversity from every angle, she has only now started to understand what poverty really means.

Accompanied by the partner organizations ECPP (European Coalition of Positive People) and UNICEF Switzerland, the group visited rural orphan centers, schools and learning centers – and witnessed first-hand local communities benefiting from Roche’s support.

The various centers and schools for children aged 3 to 19 have three common objectives:

• Providing assistance, security and meal
• Supporting academic learning;
• Educating and developing skills (such as tinsmithing, tailoring or carpentry) to help children and students to be able to generate an income to be more self-sufficient

Over the years, Roche has been instrumental in supporting the centers toward permanent sustainable changes. This year a major step towards self-sufficiency was made, clearly visible to see: the first of the three main centers now has electricity, a feature taken for granted in most of the world. This center also received its own maize (corn) mill – another fundamental shift that will allow the center to operate even more independently.

To help achieve long-term sustainable change and to tackle a key barrier to development in Malawi, Roche also is helping UNICEF train local student teachers so that future generations in Malawi can benefit from an education. 

Rod Ward, one of the ambassadors and General Manager for Roche Diagnostics in Vietnam, summarized the need of education in this change: “A key and integral component of our projects in Malawi is education. Education of the children and giving them a chance in life, and training of teachers: all this ensures a sustainable education framework for the children and the future of Malawi.”

This was mirrored by Ernesto Espino, ambassador from Buenos Aires (Argentina), who said that what “is most important is the possibility of kindling – or where necessary restoring – hope for the future by means of education, since this is the only way of promoting fundamental change in these communities”.

Through continued training, encouragement and awareness, children now have increased confidence in shaping their own future and realizing their potential. Yet, there is still a lot to be done.

Catherine Majewski, ambassador from Nutley, USA, has a final word of advice: “Let us pursue this cause with more passion and more determination so that we can one day soon see the results of the seeds that we have sown.”

"The Future of Health" was the theme of this year's Swiss Talent Forum. For four days a hand-picked group of young people from Switzerland and around a dozen other European countries pondered the issues together. And they took the bull by the horns, developing unconventional ideas and formulating new approaches to difficult problems.

The future of health is a broad topic. It ranges from soaring costs and funding problems in many Western countries to polluted drinking water and food shortages in large parts of the world. Somehow workable solutions will have to be found for the complex, sometimes conflicting global health challenges facing us today.

And it is principally the younger generation that will have to do the finding as it comes of age and moves into positions of social responsibility.

This is where young people's open-mindedness and natural penchant for lateral thinking are most needed, because today's problems cannot be solved by the old thinking that created them in the first place. One Forum participant, 21-year·old Fabian Lengwiler, put it like this: "Our generation will inherit this 'future', so closing our eyes to the challenges of health care is not an option. On the contrary, we have a huge stake in developing radical new ideas and questioning existing taboos."

A think tank for the innovators of tomorrow

This is exactly what they did. From September 5 to 8 close to 100 carefully selected high school and college students aged 17 to 22 from Switzerland and around Europe gathered to think about "The Future of Health." The event took place in the Gwatt Center on the shores of Lake Thun, its waters shimmering in the late summer sun, against an impressive backdrop of majestic alpine summits. The young people set about their task with a will. The Forum's principal sponsors are Roche, Siemens and Novartis.

The Swiss Talent Forum, a unique event in Europe, was first held in 2009, when its topic was "The Energy Challenge”: It is a think tank for young adults eager to actively address and help resolve some of the great challenges of our age. Together with science, business and civic leaders they debate urgent questions facing society and join in workshops to devise novel ways of addressing them.

On the final day each workshop group gives a public presentation of its findings. The Forum's founders want to give tomorrow's leaders and responsible citizens an opportunity to make their voices heard today. And to learn that even at a young age they can start networking and grappling with current problems and problems looming ahead.

Expert input

Among the VIP speakers to face critical questions from the floor at this year's event were Kofi Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Roche CEO Severin Schwan. They gave their listeners valuable pointers on the Forum's main topic, and suggested useful subjects for discussion. Kofi Annan delivered an impressive report on the enormous problems in many developing countries, where the health, and indeed lives, of innumerable people are threatened. Severin Schwan highlighted the growing importance of personalized medicine, citing a recent specific example from Roche. This was followed by a lively question-and-answer session led by the Roche CEO.

The only fly in the ointment was that although both the audience and Severin Schwan would have loved to continue, the facilitator had to terminate the discussion after about an hour in order not to disrupt the event schedule. The prolonged applause accorded to both Kofi Annan and Severin Schwan showed clearly how much the young people appreciated the fact that two prominent global leaders had honored them with their presence, their time and their attention. 

Andrea Agazzi from Ticino (Italian part of Switzerland) was one of the award winners in the "Schweizer Jugend forscht"¹ foundation's national competition in 2010. Part of his award was a one-week research visit to Roche Basel.

"And the Oscar goes to..." While the Schweizer Jugend forscht foundation's 44th national competition might not have the same glamour as the Academy Awards, the keen young experimental researchers whose work were singled out by the foundation were probably every bit as delighted as the famous Hollywood Oscar winners - even without the stage-managed tears.

Although this kind of success unltimately rewards a lot of hard work, it can also help open doors to a career, or at least provide a rich array of new experiences.

One of the winners in 2010 was Andrea Agazzi, who, together with his friend and fellow student Mauro Salazar, received an award in the Chemistry/Biochemistry/Medicine catergory for their work entitled: "Nanotechnology from natural tissues - Creating catalytic systems with highly active surfaces made from spongy bone".

The expert scientists who made up the judging panel rated the duo's project as "outstanding". The award also included a cash prize of 1'000 Swiss francs each and a one-week research visit to Roche in Basel, Switzerland for Andrea Agazzi and a study week at BASF in Basel, Switzerland for his partner, all sponsored by the SimplyScience initiative of the Swiss Society of Chemical Industries (SGCI)².

But why is their work, which was undertaken as part of a project for their high school leaving certificate, so outstanding? The reason is that the young scientists were able to prove that natural tissue can be used as a technological object. "We've developed a catalyst that could be important for the chemical industry", explains Andrea Agazzi.

In mid-January he redeemed part of his prize with a visit to Roche Basel, where he was able to lend a helping hand in the laboratories for five days. After a preliminary introduction, he was already carrying out a reaction on his own by the second day. Although he worked mainly in the Pharma Research Building 92, he also had a chance to visit other research facilities within Roche, including the hydration laboratory.

"Getting a glimpse of how a big company like Roche works was a great opportunity to learn something new", he says, before adding "I particularly like the 3D printer. I was completely unaware of this amazing technology before my week at Roche."

A guided tour of Basel's old town also gave him the opportunity to learn something new about history, culture and entertainment in the city.

Andrea Agazzi already knew Basel's University's Kollegienaus (collegiate building) from the national awards ceremony last year, but he did not know about Basel's "old university" on the Rheinsprung or seen the interior of the Town Hall. He was also shown the "whispering groove" in the Münster, which amplifies even the quietest sounds like a megaphone.

Looking back on his study visit as a whole, one thing in particular stuck in his mind. "People were really very interested in me and looked after me. That wasn't always the case with my previous interships."

__________

1 Swiss youth in science

2 The umbrella organisation of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries across Switzerland

On 22 November, Morocco’s National Day Against Cancer, Roche received the 2010 the International Award from the (ALSC) in recognition of our contribution to the fight against the disease in Morocco, especially in regards to low-income patients. During a special ceremony held in Casablanca, Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Salma, sponsor of the ALSC, presented the award to Dr Franz B. Humer, Chairman of the Roche Group.

“We at Roche see this award as an acknowledgement of our efforts here in Morocco to provide care to cancer patients who would not have had it otherwise,” Dr Humer said. “We very much look forward to continuing our pioneering efforts together in the fight against this terrible disease.”

Approximately 40,000 people in Morocco are diagnosed with cancer each year and through the ALSC, treatments for cancer have become much more widely available, noted Sami Zerelli, General Manager of Roche North Africa. During the past 12 months, 1300 cancer patients in Morocco have been treated through the ALSC Oncology Access Programme.

In his acceptance speech, Dr Humer explained why Roche places a high value on working in partnership with local organisations to improve cancer diagnosis and access to advanced therapies.

“We believe that active and constructive dialogue with local partners helps us understand the needs of societies, set the right priorities and obtain buy-in from the local community,” he said. Through the ALSC, Roche also is helping to improve the training of hospital oncology staff.

Examples of Roche projects to improve healthcare in developing nations include the Phelophepa "Train of Hope” and the new EDUCARE project to address Africa’s significant shortage of trained healthcare workers in oncology.

The need for improved cancer care is critical – more than half of all cancer cases occur in the developing world, but only 5 percent of global cancer resources are spent there. As the leading provider of cancer therapies, Roche is committed to helping the world overcome this severe challenge.

“We are actively exploring opportunities to expand our collaboration with the ALSC into Sub-Saharan Africa, a part of the developing world that would benefit tremendously from efforts to improve cancer care,” Dr Humer said.

In Morocco, Roche also has launched several initiatives to facilitate healthcare in general and to increase access to innovative therapies. These include the Hepatitis C Access Programme which, in collaboration with the National Initiative of Human Development in Casablanca, has treated 900 patients and the Hepatitis C National Diagnosis and Treatment Plan developed in collaboration with the Moroccan Ministry of Health.

Learn more about Roche’s commitment to improving healthcare in the developing world.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has commended the Roche Group's U.S. affiliates along with 19 other major American corporations for their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint.

In an announcement declaring -- "The world is changing. These companies are ready. Are you?" -- the EPA congratulated the companies for meeting aggressive goals to reduce carbon output. It said they were finding effective ways to transition to a low-carbon economy.

See a list of the 20 companies address.

The announcement was in the framework of the Climate Leaders partnership between the EPA and industry that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by emission management practices and incentives.

The programme is estimated to reduce emissions by 50 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, annually. Some 200 companies participate in the Climate Leaders programme.