Dive Brief:
- Roche announced Tuesday the head of its diagnostics division, Roland Diggelmann, will be leaving the company at the end of September.
- Michael Heuer, Roche Diagnostics region head for Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, will take over as interim CEO of the diagnostics unit. He first joined Boehringer Mannheim in 1983, which was acquired by Roche in 1998.
- The news comes less than a week after the FDA approved Roche's cobas EGFR Mutation Test v2, a liquid biopsy companion diagnostic test with Iressa.
Dive Insight:
Diggelmann's exit follows a decade of leadership at Roche. The medtech veteran has been with the company since 2008, and took over the diagnostics division in 2012. Prior to leading the diagnostics division, Diggelmann served as the unit's region head for Asia Pacific.
Heuer's previous positions include positions in sales, marketing and product development in Germany, Austria and the U.S. He served as subregion head for Central and Eastern Europe, Turkey, Greece and South Africa as well as head of the Roche Near Patient Testing Business Area.
"I am pleased to appoint Michael Heuer as interim CEO of our Diagnostics Division," Roche CEO Severin Schwan said in a statement. "Michael is a very respected leader with a wealth of experience in diagnostics."
Roche's diagnostics arm posted 6% sales growth in the first half of 2018, driven by its immunodiagnostic offerings, which saw 9% growth during the period. The division posted 6.3 billion Swiss francs ($6.5 billion) in sales in H1 2018.
In November, Roche Diagnostics is set to hold its Investor Day in its Rotkreuz, Switzerland office.
Roche shares were up 1% Tuesday morning.
