Roche, a family company in Basel

Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche founded F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. in Basel on 1 October 1896. The company was known early on for its vitamin preparations, and in 1934 it became the first company to mass-produce synthetic vitamin C, sold as Redoxon.

From the late 1950s its benzodiazepines, Valium the best known, made Roche a household name. In 1990 it took a majority stake in the American biotechnology pioneer Genentech, and in 2009 it acquired the company in full.

Descendants of the founding Hoffmann and Oeri families still own just over half of the voting shares. Revenue over the last twelve months was about CHF 63 billion.