“Politics have destroyed trust”: Pharmaceutical giant Roche stops investments in Germany

Roche accuses the federal government of destroying trust with short-term austerity measures. While the growth path continues internationally, new projects in Germany are on hold for the time being.

The Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche has stopped all investments in Germany. Company boss Daniel Steiners announced this in an interview with “Welt”. “We have put all future investment decisions in Germany on hold,” said Steiners. "Roche, and by that I also mean our global headquarters, now wants to understand what's next in Germany."

According to Steiners, political developments in Germany are responsible for the move. "For the pharmaceutical sector, I can say that politics has recently destroyed a lot of trust." The federal government's coalition agreement states that the pharmaceutical location should be strengthened. At the same time, private sector investments do not follow political announcements, he continued.

Steiners gave the example of the Statutory Health Insurance Contribution Stabilization Act, which is intended to ensure stable health insurance contributions, but in his opinion puts a burden on the industry. "Instead of addressing the structural problems of the statutory health insurance, politicians are relying on short-term savings and additional burdens for the industry. This means that you lose twice: the actual problem is not solved, because experience shows that without real structural reforms, such savings evaporate and you are quickly faced with the same deficit again."

For the years 2025 to 2030, the company expects sales growth of 16.3 billion francs. This is intended to more than offset expected losses from expiring patents amounting to 6.2 billion francs. To secure this course, Roche is increasingly relying on artificial intelligence (AI) in research. To this end, a new innovation center was recently opened in Boston that focuses on cardiovascular and metabolic diseases and the use of AI in drug development.