Mike Burgess Named Head of Oncology Discovery Translational Area for Roche's Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) Organization

NUTLEY, N.J., April 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Roche announced today that Mike Burgess, M.D., Ph.D., has been named Head of the Oncology Discovery and Translational Area (DTA) (1), effective immediately.  The Oncology DTA is one of five disease-focused organizations at Roche, and as part of the Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) organization, oversees research and early development up to late stage development in the field of Oncology.

Most recently, Mike was Head of Academic Alliances (part of pRED Development), based in Welwyn, UK.  He will be relocating to Nutley, NJ, as he assumes his new responsibilities.  Mike joined Roche in early 2006 as Clinical Research and Licensing Liaison, Oncology, for Roche Products Ltd., coming from Eli Lilly and Company where he was a Medical Fellow from April 1999 to January 2006.  In May 2008, he became the European Head of Roche's Clinical Research Early Development unit in its Oncology franchise.

Mike is a physician scientist with a Ph.D. in molecular biology and specialist clinical experience in pediatrics and pediatric oncology.  He received his medical training and his Ph.D. at the University of Bristol.  He is a member of London's Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health.

During his career, Mike has led the global development of a wide variety of anticancer agents (antibodies, nucleic acids, chemotherapy, targeted small molecules).

Roche currently has 17 new molecular entities (NMEs) for the disease in phase I and II.  Five cancer medicines -- Avastin, Herceptin, MabThera/Rituxan, Tarceva  and Xeloda -- accounted for about half of Roche's total pharmaceutical sales in 2009.  (link to Roche's current Oncology pipeline)

"Mike's appointment reinforces Roche's continuing commitment to maintain its standing as the world leader in innovative cancer therapies," said Jean-Jacques Garaud, Global Head of pRED.  "His strong vision of the importance of translational medicine in drug discovery and development and deep understanding of the development process will serve Roche well as we address the challenge of bringing differentiated medicines to oncology patients with unmet medical needs."

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 2009, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested almost 10 billion Swiss francs in R&D ($9.1B US). The Group posted sales of 49.1 billion Swiss francs ($45.1B US). Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: www.roche.com or www.roche-nutley.com.

1) There are five Discovery and Translation Areas within Roche's Pharma Research and Early Development organization that oversee research and early development up to full development decisions.  The other DTAs are focused on Central Nervous System, Inflammation, Metabolics and Virology.

SOURCE Roche