Roche appoints new pharma and diagnostics heads

Roche has announced a series of changes to its corporate executive committee, following the departure from the group of Pascal Soriot.

Daniel O'Day, who has acted as chief operating officer (COO) of Roche Diagnostics since January 2010, will succeed Mr Soriot in the role of COO of Roche Pharma.

Severin Schwan, chief executive officer of Roche, said: "I am very pleased that with Daniel O'Day, we are appointing a new head of Roche Pharma with a very impressive track record in both the diagnostics and pharmaceuticals division."

Meanwhile, Mr O'Day's former post will be filled by Roland Diggelmann, the current head of Asia-Pacific operations at Roche Diagnostics, who will also become part of the executive committee for the first time.

Mr Schwan expressed confidence that Mr Diggelmann will also succeed in his new role, thanks to his experience in commercial and marketing activities on a broad international basis.

Last month, Roche announced a group sales total of 22.4 billion Swiss francs (17.78 billion pounds) for the first half of 2012, up by three percent year over year.