Roche’s R&D is moving on up. The pharma giant has opened two new high-rises in Basel, Switzerland, according to a Sept. 10 release. The facility is named the Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) Center and houses about 1,000 state-of-the-art laboratory and office workplaces.
“Roche has invested 1.2 billion [Swiss francs] ($1.4 billion) into the new pRED Center, underscoring our ongoing commitment to supporting Switzerland in remaining a leading innovative life sciences hub, the country where Roche was founded over 125 years ago,” Roche group chair and former CEO Severin Schwan said in the release.
In addition to the high-rise labs, the pRED Center also boasts an office building and a convention center, according to the release. Across the center, there are 33 office floors with 150 labs and workplaces to support around 1,800 researchers, who will come from a variety of disciplines, including chemistry, data science and biology.
A primary focus at the center will be collaboration with Roche’s other R&D hubs around the world, Roche Group CEO Thomas Schinecker said in the release.
The Roche Group has made other R&D moves recently too. Genentech, a Roche company, announced last month that it was merging its cancer immunology research function with molecular oncology research to form one single cancer research body. Aviv Regev, Ph.D., head of Genentech research and early development, told journalists Tuesday at a launch event for the pRED Center that this move was based on a desire to unite scientists working on tumor cells and immunology.