J.P. Morgan Appointed Successor Depositary Bank for Roche ADR Program

London, 21 January, 2009 - J.P. Morgan announced today that it has been appointed as the successor depositary bank for the American Depositary Receipt (ADR) program of Roche Holding Ltd (Roche), one of the world's leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics.  Roche’s ADR (RHHBY), a leading program on OTCQX, is also one of the top-five OTC ADR programs in Western Europe by value, and is among the most actively traded with $4.9 billion in depositary receipts (DRs) traded annually*.

Roche joins a strong list of major European pharmaceutical firms for which J.P. Morgan acts as ADR depositary including: AstraZeneca plc, Novartis AG, sanofi-aventis, and Shire plc. 

Claudine Gallagher, global head of Depositary Receipts at J.P. Morgan, said, "We are proud to have Roche, a renowned pharmaceutical company, join our roster of clients. We look forward to working with the company to help it benefit from U.S. demand for foreign equities."

J.P. Morgan created the first-ever DR in 1927 for British retailer Selfridges.  Today the overall DR market comprises more than 1,800 companies from over 75 countries in the form of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) or Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs).

For market information on DRs and international equities go to J.P. Morgan’s award-winning Web site www.adr.com. For more information on J.P. Morgan's DR services go to http://www.jpmorgan.com/visit/adr.

About Roche Holding Ltd
Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world’s leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As the world’s biggest biotech company and an innovator of products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, Roche contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people’s health and quality of life. Roche is the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics and drugs for cancer and transplantation, and is a market leader in virology. It is also active in other major therapeutic areas such as autoimmune diseases, inflammatory and metabolic disorders and diseases of the central nervous system. In 2007 sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totalled 36.8 billion Swiss francs, and the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 9.3 billion francs. Roche has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai, and invested over 8 billion Swiss francs in R&D in 2007. Worldwide, the Roche Group employs about 80,000 people. Additional information is available on the Internet at www.roche.com  .

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* Annual value calculation based on total value of DR shares traded in 2008.  Source: Bloomberg