BUSINESS Roche: value-based and sustainable healthcare

business

FOR A MORE EFFICIENT PATIENT JOURNEY

ROCHE WORKS TO ENSURE PEOPLE IN HUNGARY HAVE ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS THEY NEED With almost two decades of experience in a wide range of areas across the Group, from diagnostics to pharmaceuticals and diabetes care, Raffaella Claudia Bondi, the newly appointed Managing Director of Roche Hungary, who has previously worked in Switzerland, Denmark and her native Italy, has arrived in Hungary. She sees the future in innovation and research and development, and believes that the continued uptake of personalized therapies is essential for value-based and sustainable healthcare.

Roche has a diversified portfolio in Hungary. The pharmaceutical diagnostics and diabetes business lines and the Roche service center, which opened here 15 years ago, employ over a thousand people. As regards the main challenges that await her in managing Roche Hungary, Raffaella Bondi says that “we are present in a lot of different ways here in Hungary: as healthcare solution providers, innovators, investors and also employers. I think each of these roles presents opportunities and challenges, one them being to ensure that the people in Hungary can have access to the healthcare solutions we develop in a way that is appropriate to their needs. When I think about ourselves more as investors and think of our efforts in R&D, the question is rather ‘How do we collaborate and partner with the public stakeholders and universities, but also with the private ones, to innovate in healthcare in Hungary?’ And then, when it comes to our role as employers, the challenge is more like how to attract talent that can contribute to our success in Hungary and beyond as we work more and more in interconnected ways. So, we want our talents to be able to have an impact also beyond the geographical location.”

Personalized patient journey

According to the Managing Director, the continued uptake of personalized therapies is essential for value based and sustainable healthcare. “It is not only the base of our R&D globally, but it is also the way we look at the priorities in Hungary.” As an example in the company’s personalized healthcare vision, she mentions the patient journey management tools developed together with patients and healthcare professionals. “It is really about personalizing and making more efficient each patient journey so that not only the patient can have a better experience but the dialogue with the team of healthcare professionals is also much more efficient and effective.”

Aiming at developing a solution

Roche is among the highest R&D spenders in this industry. Summarizing the main directions of research and development, Raffaella Bondi stresses that the top objective is personalized healthcare. “Personalized healthcare is about putting together advanced technology, medicines, data and digital innovation to develop something that is not just a piece of a puzzle, but it's really an integrated solution. So, when we look now at our R&D, we really look at what the patient’s need is and how to address it in a holistic way. Thus, we don't just develop a single theme, but we aim at developing a solution, something that might have multiple components in order to be easily integrated into the patient journey.”

Joining the fight against the pandemic

Roche Hungary Ltd. has joined the fight against the coronavirus epidemic as a healthcare company, helping to control the situation with voluntary work and donations. As the Managing Director highlights, they have contributed in multiple ways “because we believe it's our role also as good citizens to contribute to easing such cases of emergency. We have donated our own products because some of these can be used in instances like this. But also, given that a large part of our employees are medical doctors, we have supported both vaccinations and activities in hospitals. Of course, following the indications of the government and innovation teams in the hospitals. Another thing that I found, and it was done before I joined so I can’t take any merit for it but it was something I really appreciated: the donation of computers to children to support their distance learning, which is another way to really show our commitment to the general society.”

Three types of sustainability

Sustainability is a key word at Roche. As to how it appears in the day-to-day activities of the company, the Managing Director explains that “we talk about three different types of sustainability. The first one is at the core of what we do, which is innovating healthcare in a sustainable way – sustainable from a society perspective. It's about the work and the partnerships that we make with institutions and government to enable innovation at a sustainable cost for the society. It means working in terms of value based healthcare, reducing inefficiencies and making sure that the right patient gets the right treatment.” Another level of sustainability she mentions as very important for Roche, and one that has been practiced for many years, is environmental sustainability. “Our company has taken a lot of initiative to reduce our impact on the environment. And in Hungary specifically, just think of our new offices: we chose on purpose a location which is well connected with public transport in a building, which is at the forefront in terms of reducing the impact on the environment. And then there is a third sustainability aspect, which is related to the idea of sustainability in terms of well-being – something that seems to be even more important in these times of the new coronavirus pandemic. We work in a hybrid way and this presents some challenges. So, as a company, as an employer, we offer ways to support our colleagues, and make available better conditions for remote and distant working in a way that can ensure their well-being.

COVID-19: adapting to the situation

In the fall of 2021, the world is still full of uncertainties, given the renewed spreading of the pandemic. Regarding Roche’s plan to cope with this situation professionally in the coming months and years, Raffaella Bondi stresses that they will continue as a company to invest in research and development related to COVID-19 both in the diagnostic field, where we were the first to develop a series of different diagnostic tools and we will continue to focus on that, but also on the treatment aspect. “We have multiple trials ongoing, and we will continue to invest in that area. And then more specifically, when it comes to the operations, it is all about ensuring our employees’ safety and well-being. Hybrid work can be sustainable if we think about it in an intentional way, focusing not only on ensuring business continuity but also on creating meaningful connections and effective collaboration, constantly looking at the evolution of the disease in order to adapt our measures and our ways of working.”