ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss pharmaceutical firm Roche will not be planning job cuts and its enterprise is wholesome, CEO Thomas Schinecker was quoted as saying by a Swiss newspaper on Sunday.
Roche’s share value has fallen far beneath peaks it scaled in April 2022 and the CEO was questioned in regards to the firm’s staffing plans within the context of latest setbacks in its growth of medication to deal with most cancers, amongst different sicknesses.
“The variety of staff is fixed to barely rising,” Schinecker informed the NZZ am Sonntag in an interview when requested if the corporate was planning layoffs.
“I can say with certainty that we’ve got a really wholesome enterprise. And we do not have a progress drawback both,” he stated, whereas noting that Roche’s finances for analysis and growth was secure and never rising.
Requested when Roche’s deliberate anti-obesity drug would hit the market, Schinecker stated it might be round 2029 or sooner.
Addressing the outlook extra broadly for subsequent yr, notably in mild of the German financial system’s latest struggles, the Roche CEO stated Europe nonetheless confronted challenges.
“There’s some financial progress in the USA, however issues are tougher in China in the meanwhile,” he stated. “And in Europe it can take a while earlier than we get out of this.”
(Writing by Dave Graham; Enhancing by David Holmes)