Get to know Roche in brief

We have been committed to improving lives since the company was founded in 1896 in Basel, Switzerland. Today, Roche creates innovative medicines and diagnostic tests that help millions of patients globally.

Roche was one of the first companies to bring targeted treatments to patients. With our combined strength in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics, we are better equipped than any other company to further drive personalised healthcare. Two-thirds of our Research and Development projects are being developed with companion diagnostics.

We are the world's number 1 in biotech with 14 biopharmaceuticals on the market. Over half of the compounds in our product pipeline are biopharmaceuticals, enabling us to deliver better-targeted therapies.

We have been at the forefront of cancer research and treatment for over 50 years, with medicines for breast, skin, colon, ovarian, lung and numerous other cancers.

We offer doctors profound information to guide treatments and to answer more patients’ questions than any other company. And our tests enable hospitals and labs to deliver that information quickly and reliably.

We invest around 9 billion Swiss francs in Research and Development every year because innovation is our lifeblood. This is amongst the highest Research and Development spends in theworld across all industries.

We are a force of over 88,000 people working together across more than 150 countries. Roche is consistently ranked as employer of choice by its employees and by external institutions.

In Ireland, we employ almost 130 people and are nationally recognised as an industry leader when it comes to employee wellbeing. 

In 2019, Roche was the first pharmaceutical organisation in Ireland to receive theand the employee wellbeing offering has continued to evolve over the last 5 years. 

For many years running we have been recognized by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices as the leader in sustainability within our industry.

Roche Ireland Limited (Clarecastle) is a subsidiary of the Roche Group, based in Basel, Switzerland.

Roche’s Clarecastle facility was established in 1974 as Syntex Ireland on 36 hectares of land overlooking the Fergus River in Clarecastle, Co. Clare, and became Roche’s pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Ireland when the Roche Group acquired the site in 1994.

Following a decision in 2015 to exit the Clarecastle facility, final production was undertaken in November 2019 and pharmaceutical operations ceased in March 2020.

A planning application to decommission the site was submitted to Clare County Council in June 2020 and a formal final grant of planning permission to commence work on the phased demolition of all existing buildings, structures and infrastructure, on, in and under the site of the existing Roche pharmaceutical plant at Clarehill, Clarecastle, Co Clare was issued by Clare County Council on 3 February 2021. This work is now underway and will continue in phases through to mid 2028, when the groundwater validation monitoring phase is complete and the site's EPA licence is officially surrendered.

Further information and updates on the RocheClarecastle Site Decommissioning Project can be found at