After manufacturing the antibiotic Rocephin for four decades—and developing it into one of the company’s first blockbuster medicines—Roche is looking to divest the treatment and its production facility near its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.
Roche is seeking a partner to take over the plant and continue production of the drug, also known as ceftriaxone sodium, which has faced generic competition over the last two decades. Local outlet AWP Financial News reported the effort earlier this week.
“The decision was made because production of Rocephin in Switzerland is becoming increasingly unsustainable due to the rising cost of manufacturing, the reduction in prices that governments are willing to pay for Rocephin and the widespread use of generics in many countries around the world,” the company wrote in a statement to Fierce Pharma Manufacturing.
Roche added that its divestment effort comes after unsuccessful discussions for two years with the European Commission’s Health Emergency Response Authority and Switzerland’s Bundesamt für Gesundheit “to secure sustainable production at the site.”
The company added that the divestment of the plant, which houses roughly 100 employees, will “not be complete before the end of the decade.”
Roche also pointed out that it is not abandoning the antibiotics market nor diminishing its presence in Switzerland. Last year, the company revealed plans to conduct a phase 3 trial of its novel antibiotic zosurabalpin for carbapenem-resistant acinetobacter baumannii.
“We stand by our strong commitment to developing new antibiotics and tackling antimicrobial resistance (AMR), as well as to our sites in Switzerland,” the company wrote.
The decision comes as European drugmakers are fleeing the market because regulatory and environmental pressures have made production of generics less attractive. The departures have left the EU with a sourcing problem as it already relies heavily on products from China. Last month, the bloc passed the Critical Medicines Act to increase competitiveness and tackle shortages.
The FDA approved Rocephin in 1984 as a treatment for severe bacterial infections including meningitis, sepsis and pneumonia. Roche, which billed as Rocephin as the “No. 1 hospital product” in the U.S. market, lost its patent protection for the injected antibiotic all the way back in 2005.