Roche Canada is committed to providing timely information to support our healthcare practitioner community as it relates to COVID-19.
This public health emergency of international concern is a prioritized area of attention for all of us and we greatly appreciate your efforts as the front-line workers supporting patients in this challenging situation. We are closely monitoring the evolving COVID-19 pandemic and following the guidance provided by public health officials, and will continue to keep you updated.
This site is intended to provide Canadian Healthcare Professionals with the latest information regarding Roche Canada products and services during COVID-19.
Within this site, HCPs will find the following information and resources:
Ocrelizumab Pharmacovigilance (PV) data: COVID-19
To view October 2020 Ocrelizumab PV data related to COVID-19,
The site will be updated on a consistent basis with relevant news and additional content.
Information regarding the Roche Data Science Coalition’s efforts to support the HCP community through a
The following section provides answers to frequently asked questions. Questions not covered in the following section can be addressed by contacting us using the information at the bottom of this page.
Patient safety is Roche’s highest priority and we are closely monitoring the evolving situation to best understand how new COVID-19 vaccines will impact people being treated with Roche medicines. Multiple vaccine candidates are currently in development and a number have already received regulatory authorization (under special emergency use) – some are based on well-established platforms (such as inactivated, viral vector or live-attenuated vaccines) while others are based on novel platforms (such as mRNA).
Roche is continually collecting evidence from clinical and biological sources to better understand immune response mechanisms to ensure any SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is as efficacious and safe as possible for patients being treated with Roche medicines.
We appreciate how difficult it may be for physicians to make treatment decisions at this time, when there is still limited information available. We believe treatment decisions should be made between a patient and their treating healthcare professional based on a benefit/risk assessment specific to the individual patient.
For product-specific questions, please
All of our manufacturing facilities comply with current Good Manufacturing Practice regulations, which include hygiene standards to safeguard against potential contamination or cross-contamination and mandatory requirements to report any issues.
To safeguard our employees and operations, all Roche manufacturing sites have site-specific pandemic plans in place to ensure business continuity to the best of their ability during this ongoing health situation. We are monitoring the situation closely in real-time across our global manufacturing network, and we are confident that we are taking all appropriate steps to minimize infection risks.
Roche deploys business continuity plans globally, across our affiliates, international headquarters and manufacturing sites, to help maintain the ongoing availability of our medications to all of our patients during public health emergencies.
We have no supply constraints in Canada at this time, and have a plan in place with our logistics and transportation providers to support the uninterrupted delivery of both commercial and clinical products.
We welcome you to visit the
Please note that testing criteria will differ from country to country
Please refer to your local, provincial or national health agency
At Roche Canada, our aim is to ensure that every person who needs our medicines is able to access them through our Patient Support Programs.
We are working proactively with all of our associated clinics to keep patients as safe as possible when receiving Roche therapy through our programs, and taking active measures to ensure the ongoing administration of our medications to all of our Canadian patients. For more information please see our
Given the rapidly evolving and escalating health authority guidance and in the interests of the health and safety of their patients and staff, private infusion clinics may make the decision to close. Should this occur, our vendor network will assess all impacted patients and offer an appropriate alternative setting on a priority basis. If you have questions, please
Roche understands that many patients and their families have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. If you currently have patients who are enrolled in a Roche Patient Assistance Program and have lost their job or health insurance coverage due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will continue to work with both public and private payers to find solutions that ensure they have continuity of therapy, and we will close the gap when needed.
For updated payor information related to COVID-19, please see our
The following resources provide current information on COVID-19.
BC Cancer:
ON-CCO:
QC - MSSS:
INESSS
ERA-EDTA COVID-19 Resources
British Thoracic Society
NMSS:
ACR COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 FAQs
EULAR Guidance for patients COVID-19 outbreak
At Roche Canada, we believe that the sharing of knowledge and organizing of healthcare data will better inform patient care and health system decision making and make a positive impact on COVID-19. To help achieve this, we have assembled a group of like-minded public and private organizations with a common mission and vision to bring actionable COVID-19 intelligence to patients, frontline healthcare providers, institutions, supply chains, and government focused on the following:
The Federal Government has realized that currently available datasets are incomplete and we commend them on the launch of a COVID-19 app to help Canadians stay informed and determine what next steps they should take if they have any symptoms or risk-factors for COVID-19. We have tested this app and note that it mostly collects screening information and directs people to either Telehealth services or a physician. To enrich currently available data, Roche and front-line HCPs created a patient self-assessment tool. The tool is available to users via the
Through this tool, individuals can report data into the Health Storylines app which includes functionality to allow them to track symptoms and then print their self assessment, or display it on the Health Storylines app, and share it with their healthcare professional providing an overview of their symptoms and health history.
In addition, an anonymized COVID-19 dataset will be prepared and shared with the Roche Data Science Coalition data repository (see below), where it will be made freely available to the research community with the aim of better informing decision making on resource allocation during this pandemic.
Features of the Self-Assessment Tool via the Health Storylines app
The triage process in institutions may be improved simply by enabling Canadians to provide a pre-populated patient self-assessment tool to their HCP upon screening, saving time and ensuring more robust data
As individuals with comorbid conditions share their information, it could help HCPs understand these risks and plot the best course of action to help these patients
The data being collected can help us understand how the illness evolves and who is at greatest risk
The app simultaneously empowers users’ Circle of Support to provide care and support remotely, and enables tracking of interactions to facilitate contact tracing
Based on the existing functionality of Health Storylines apps developed and validated over the last decade, the app will also collect critical granular data on the unique challenges high-risk individuals with underlying medical conditions face in coping with COVID-19, such as maintaining continuity of care, accessing their treatments and supporting their mental health
After the patient has been seen by an HCP, they can continue to track their symptoms in the app daily, which will help health system stakeholders better understand how the disease progresses in different patients and could potentially help predict where the next hot spot will be in our country
These features and others will significantly expand upon the data captured by the Government of Canada app
We have developed a centralized location, housed by ThinkData Works’
The data will also help to identify resource constraints in treating the global COVID-19 patient population. Understanding capacity issues will help our healthcare workers get the right healthcare to the right people at the right time. Coalition collaborators will utilize our existing stakeholder channels to communicate important repository data insights to patients, hospitals, industry and government.
For any other medical information on a Roche medicine, please contact us at 1-888-ROCHE88 or via our online Medical Information Request Form.
For general questions, please
For complete prescribing details for all marketed Roche products, including information which may be relevant to Roche products mentioned in the enclose reference, please refer to the product monograph which can be obtained by contacting us or visiting our Product Information page.
Hoffmann-La Roche Limited is providing information and data contained in or attached to this website (“Information”) to health care professionals (“HCPs”) as a professional courtesy for evaluation and use in HCP’s own practice as determined in HCP’s sole discretion. The Information may include scientific information about experimental or investigational compounds, indications and services that are not approved, available or valid in Canada. Roche does not support, endorse or recommend the unapproved use of any product or service. Use of any product should be in accordance with the full prescribing information contained in the current product monograph.
Roche has made an effort to provide accurate and up-to-date information. However, since medical science is always in flux, the Information provided may not be comprehensive or up-to-date, and is therefore provided “as is”, without warranties or representations of any kind.