Roche medicines started to reach pharmacies in Africa in the early 20th Century. From 1920, Roche representatives start visiting African countries, including Egypt and South Africa.

Roche South Africa opened its headquarters in the Keatings Building, Johannesburg in the early 1950s. Today our South Africa headquarters are based in Midrand where we have our Scientific Campus, and our Diagnostics Division has an additional site in Cape Town.

Today, the additional access to diagnostic test results for more disease areas, through Roche’s Global Access Program, means more patients being appropriately diagnosed and well treated, resulting in lives saved.

Roche becomes the principal private sponsor of the Phelophepa Health Care Train (run by Transnet) which is still bringing medical care and services to rural South Africans to this day. Phelophepa II was launched in 2012. In the over 25 years that Roche was the principal private sponsor of the train, Phelophepa has touched the lives of approximately 14 million people, dispensed medication to over 3 million patients and provided health screening to over 2 million people.

In partnership with the Kenyan Ministry of Health, the County First Ladies Association, the International Cancer Institute of Kenya, Amref Health Africa and the Kenya National Health Insurance Fund, Roche supported the launch of the EMPOWER clinics in 2019. The initiative aimed to improve access to cancer care for women in Kenya. To date, the EMPOWER partnership has launched 19 clinics across Kenya and screened over 132,450 women for breast and cervical cancer.

The African Genomics Program is Roche’s bold commitment to accelerating African genomic research with the aim of reducing global health inequities. The program brings together an ambitious collaboration of African researchers, governments, non-profit organisations, multilateral bodies, and the private sector — all dedicated to changing how African genomic data is collected and shared, enabling scientific discovery and improving health for all patients

Roche has a 70+ year history in Africa and a legacy as a health innovation company, with eleven Roche affiliate offices and a presence in over 40 countries

Roche has over 50 active clinical studies ongoing in Africa, including several oncology trials and over 1,000 employees supporting the work in the region. As of 2022, Roche medicines have treated over 490,000 patients.