As an integral part of the healthcare ecosystem, we are closely monitoring the global SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic. Roche Canada is working proactively with partners across the healthcare industry, including patient organizations, healthcare professionals, hospitals and clinics, governments and regulatory bodies, to keep Canadians as safe as possible. We recognize our vital role in delivering critical products, including diagnostics and medicines, to Canadian patients and customers. 

We are committed to keeping you informed about our products and our approach, offering our support, and demonstrating leadership during this challenging time. We will update this page regularly as new information becomes available. If you have questions or require support please

If you are a Canadian Healthcare Professional, you may access our dedicated COVID-19 page containing the latest information regarding Roche Canada products and services

For SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Tests (for professional usage or self test), learn more

We are working closely with Health Canada, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) and each provincial public health authority to support their strategy relating to existing COVID-19 testing solutions, including those provided by Roche and according to the needs of the various regions. We are diligently providing our COVID-19 testing solutions to laboratories, public and private, and we are taking the necessary measures to help reduce the impacts of the pandemic.

We have developed a growing number of diagnostic solutions that help screen, diagnose and monitor current and/or past SARS-CoV-2 virus infections in patients. Learn moreFor SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Tests (for professional usage or self test), learn more

With the introduction of new COVID-19 vaccines, we understand that patients and healthcare professionals may have questions on how the vaccine may impact people who are treated with Roche products, particularly whether people treated with Roche medicines should/can receive the vaccine, and how they may impact the vaccine’s efficacy.

Patient safety is Roche’s highest priority and we are closely monitoring the evolving COVID-19 situation. We are working closely with the community to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on people who are treated with Roche medicines, and will continue to share new insights as they emerge.

It is important to note that over 180 vaccines are currently being developed for SARS-CoV-2 with accelerated development timelines, and a number of these vaccines use platforms for which there is no prior experience. 

We encourage patients to speak with their healthcare professional about questions related to COVID-19 vaccines and their treatment plan, or for their healthcare professional todirectly.

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 Roche understands that many patients and their families have been financially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.  If you are a patient who is currently enrolled in a Roche Patient Assistance Program and have lost your job or health insurance coverage due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will continue to work with both public and private payors to find solutions that ensure you have continuity of therapy, and we will close the gap when needed. 

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  directly.

We believe that an important way in which the world can win this fight is through the sharing of knowledge and healthcare data to better inform patient care and health system decision making. To help achieve this, we have assembled the 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. Together we have developed a centralized repository for publicly available data, as well as data gathered from a patient self-assessment tool, to be used to enhance COVID-19 research datasets focused on informing the management of the global pandemic.

As patient level data is an important part of understanding and responding to COVID-19, the Coalition has made available a patient self-assessment tool that can be used by anyone suspected to have, or has been diagnosed (currently being treated or recovered) with COVID-19. It is available to users via the  app, into which patients can report their data.  An anonymized COVID-19 dataset will be prepared and shared with the Roche Data Science Coalition data repository, 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. The app also includes functionality allowing patients to share it with their healthcare professional, providing an overview of their symptoms and health history, which could help healthcare professionas to make more informed and efficient assessments based on the patient’s data.

We deploy 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. 

Roche Canada is committed to working in partnership with our Canadian community to develop solutions to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. To move this forward, we have established the Roche Canada COVID-19 Innovation Challenge - a funding program to support our community in bringing forward innovative ideas to address some of the biggest challenges and issues of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Congratulations Canada!  Our Challenge called on all the creative and innovative minds in Canada to bring forward solutions to address the COVID-19 pandemic.  Incredibly, we received over 840 high quality applications demonstrating the amazing skill and talent we have in our country. We are happy to congratulate the winners of the Roche Canada COVID-19 Open Innovation Challenge.1

As the products and services provided by Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. in Canada are essential to the Canadian healthcare system, all services will continue to operate as they currently do. For more information about businesses deemed essential services, please visit 

Roche is actively involved in understanding the potential of our existing portfolio. Canada recently played a role in a Phase III clinical trial studying the safety and efficacy of one of our portfolio medicines in hospitalized adult patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Similar studies are ongoing globally, where we will continue generating evidence to provide a complete understanding of COVID-19 associated moderate to severe pneumonia. Roche is also collecting and compiling data from other, independently-led clinical trials that are taking place around the world.

References

1. Subject to due diligence and the successful execution of a funding agreement.