Roche has been hit with another departing executive. This morning the Swiss pharma giant announced that Roland Diggelmann, the chief executive officer of the company’s diagnostics division, is leaving at the end of September.
Roche has been hit with another departing executive. This morning the Swiss pharma giant announced that Roland Diggelmann, the chief executive officer of the company’s diagnostics division, is leaving at the end of September.
Roche did not provide much in the way of why Diggelmann has chosen to leave. The company said he is looking “to pursue his career outside of the company.” Diggelmann has been with Roche since 2008. Before taking over the company’s diagnostics division in 2012, he previously served as Region Head Asia Pacific for Roche Diagnostics. Roche’s diagnostics division develops tests and equipment for a multitude of diseases. In April the division snagged regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for cobas CT/NG for use on the cobas 6800/8800 Systems for the detection of chlamydia and gonorrhea in both symptomatic and asymptomatic patients.
Prior to Roche, Diggelmann served as a senior vice president of the EMEA organization for Zimmer GmbH, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Severin Schwann, Roche’s CEO, said he was grateful for the “many valuable contributions” Diggelmann made during his decade at Roche. He wished Diggelmann well in his future endeavors.
Taking over Roche Diagnostics in the interim, a division that accounts for about 20 percent of the company’s total business, will be Michael Heuer, a longtime company veteran. Heuer came to Roche through its 1998 acquisition of Boehringer Mannheim. At that company, which he joined in 1983, Heuer held numerous roles, including leadership positions in sales, marketing, and product development in Germany, Austria, and the United States, Roche said. He currently serves as region head of Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America for Roche Diagnostics. Schwann said Heuer is a “very respected leader with a wealth of experience in diagnostics.”
Roche has seen a number of changes at the executive level over the past several months. In June the company announced Sophie Kornowski-Bonnet, the head of Roche Partnering, was leaving the company. She was replaced by Genentech’s James Sabry, who took over the role of global head of partnering for Roche. In March John C. Reed, head of Roche Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED), decided to leave the company and return to the United States for personal reasons. Reed had been with the company since 2013. William Pao, who served as Global Head of the Oncology Discovery and Translational Area for pRED, took over for Reed in April.
