Roche sees growth in China and Switzerland amid Nutley closure

Roche CEO Severin Schwan talked up the expansion under way in his company's hometown of Basel, Switzerland, in an interview published Sunday in a German-language newspaper. And the piece points out that the company ($RHHBY)--which plans to shutter its Nutley, NJ site and scuttle 1,000 jobs there--the company will be adding about 1,000 positions over the next year in China.  

Schwan is one of many pharma chiefs deciding to consolidate operations in the U.S. and Europe while expanding in China, where a rapid rate of growth in the drug industry has prompted companies to reprioritize their allocation of sales and R&D workforces. The trend spells disaster for R&D workers at the Nutley site, whose responsibilities will be moved to other company outposts.

In Switzerland, Roche has added 300 jobs the first half of this year, according to the SonntagsZeitung piece. Roche, the world's biggest cancer drug provider, is moving virology operations from Nutley to Basel. And Schwan pointed out a new building taking form on his company's campus in Basel as proof that more investments would be made in its home country.

However, the company's jobs rate of growth in China over the past few years has been staggering. "We employed 5,000 people in China already, a few years ago there were only a few hundred," Schwan said, as quoted in the Q&A article. "Within a year there, we create 1,000 new jobs. And that's good for Basel."

It's good for Basel because in the first half of 2012 the company's pharma and diagnostics revenues jumped 24% and 32% respectively in China. China's ambitions for expanding health coverage, and its rapidly rising middle class, promise sustain pharma growth for years to come. Roche wants to ride that wave of growth, along with other Big Pharma outfits that have cut jobs in the U.S. and Europe as they build up their ranks in Asia.

- here's the SonntagsZeitung piece translated by Google