Even as Roche makes a major investment pledge across its U.S. business, the Swiss pharmaceutical giant isn’t neglecting its chief markets in Asia.
Roche is investing roughly 2.04 billion Chinese yuan ($282 million) to erect a new biomanufacturing hub in Shanghai, China. The plant, which will mark Roche’s second for branded medicines in the country, will mainly be used for domestic production of the eye med Vabysmo, which goes by the commercial moniker Luoshijia in China. The name combines Roche’s Chinese name “Luo Shi” and two words “Shi Jia” that mean good vision.
Construction of the new plant will take place across 25,000 square meters (roughly 269,000 square feet) of real estate in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang High-tech Park and is expected to wrap up in 2029, Roche said in a Chinese-language press release. The drugmaker says it aims to kick off production work at the new facility by 2031.
Roche will use a sustainable approach in both the build-out and operation of the plant and will leverage 100% green electricity at the site, once complete. The company’s current China headquarters is located just 100 meters from the location of the new facility, Roche added.
Roche first set up shop in Zhangjiang in 1994 and established major manufacturing operations in China in 2025, according to the company’s release.
“The deployment of a new production base is an important milestone in Roche's development in China,” Bian Xin, president of Roche Pharmaceuticals China, said in a statement, adding that the company’s commitment to the country “remains unchanged.”
“It marks that Roche's localized production capacity in China has made great progress, and it also represents Roche's major breakthrough in the localized production of more innovative drugs in this important market,” she explained.
All told, Roche currently markets 30 products in China, including cancer meds, anti-infectives, neurology drugs and ophthalmology therapies, local news outlet Yicai Global reported on Friday.
The project comes as myriad drugmakers—Roche included—make separate major investments in the U.S. and Chinese market to help offset the impact of potential pharmaceutical tariffs.
Roche, for its part, has said it will pour $50 billion into its U.S. operations over the next five years. The spending spree will, among other measures, help set up a 900,000-square-foot manufacturing plant that Roche will use to crank out its portfolio of next-generation weight loss drugs.
Roche said late last month that it will also use the cash infusion to support construction of a new plant in Indiana for continuous glucose monitoring devices and a gene therapy manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania, plus upgrades to its current U.S. sites.
Roche has not stopped growing its presence in other countries, CEO Thomas Schinecker said during the company’s first-quarter earnings call, pointing to ongoing projects in China, Germany and Switzerland.
“Over the past years, it’s really been our strategy to make sure that we have strong manufacturing presence in all of the major markets,” Schinecker said.
Meanwhile, Roche’s Vabysmo has repeatedly scored major global sales wins since its approval some three years back.
For all of 2024, the ophthalmology injectable, which is approved across a range of retinal conditions, crossed the $4-billion sales threshold, becoming the No. 3 top-earning drug across Roche’s entire commercial portfolio.