Roche Diabetes Care Forms Human Blue Circle, Supports Viral Video for World Diabetes Day

INDIANAPOLIS, Nov. 11, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Roche Diabetes Care, makers of ACCU-CHEK® products and services, is showing its support for World Diabetes Day (Nov. 14) through two truly collaborative initiatives.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101111/DE99363)

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20101111/DE99363)

Roche Diabetes Care formed its first human blue circle this year as a demonstration of support for people around the world with diabetes. The blue circle is the official logo of World Diabetes Day and is often duplicated in "human form" as a demonstrable act of support for WDD's effort to increase diabetes advocacy and awareness. Nearly 200 Roche employees formed the blue circle, which can be viewed on the ACCU-CHEK World Diabetes Day page.*

Roche Diabetes Care is also proud to have partnered with the Diabetes Hands Foundation, Diabetes Daily and Diabetes Stories to sponsor a video for the Big Blue Test. The video, located at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkLHgK94Z0E, encourages people with diabetes to test their blood sugar on Nov. 14, get active for 14 minutes and then test again. The Big Blue Test, now in its second year, helps people with diabetes better understand the positive impact they can have on their blood sugar. Roche Diabetes Care underwrote the cost of the video's production and will make a donation for every view the video receives up to $75,000.

"The two initiatives underscore Roche's commitment to advocacy, awareness and education when it comes to diabetes," said Luc Vierstraete, senior vice president and general manager, Roche Diabetes Care North America. "We're thankful to have such wonderful partners in the diabetes community and hope that our Human Blue Circle and Big Blue Test video encourage others to get involved and make a difference in their communities."

World Diabetes Day is celebrated every year on Nov. 14 and was created by the International Diabetes Foundation and the World Health Organization. Since 2007 it has been recognized as an official United Nations Day.

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About Roche Diabetes Care

Roche Diabetes Care is a pioneer in the development of blood glucose monitoring systems and a global leader for diabetes management systems and services. For more than 30 years, Roche has been committed to helping people with diabetes live lives that are as normal and active as possible and has been helping healthcare professionals manage their patients' condition in an optimal way. Today, the ACCU-CHEK portfolio offers people with diabetes and healthcare professionals innovative products, services and comprehensive solutions for convenient, efficient and effective diabetes management—from blood glucose monitoring through information management to insulin delivery. The ACCU-CHEK brand encompasses blood glucose meters, infusion pumps, lancing and data management systems. For more information, please visit accu-chek.com.

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. The Group posted sales of 49.1 billion Swiss francs. 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-diagnostics.us.

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SOURCE Roche Diabetes Care