Indianapolis, Ind. August 11, 2003

Roche Protein Expression Group Helps Accelerate the Path to Drug Discovery
Patented Technology Reduces Time and Investment for Pharmaceutical Research and Development Pipeline

Roche Diagnostics, the world's leading diagnostic organization, announced today the creation of the Roche Protein Expression Group (RPEG), a business unit within Roche Applied Science in Indianapolis. The RPEG business mission is to provide pharmaceutical companies access to proteins that are potential targets of new drugs, thereby shortening the path to drug discovery.

Headquartered in Indianapolis, the RPEG uses their patented Continuous Exchange, Cell-Free (CECF) technology to overcome many of the difficulties encountered when using traditional cell-based systems, such as low expression levels, poor solubility and improper folding. The RPEG has experience with a wide range of protein classes and has been successful expressing target proteins that were previously unattainable from traditional cell-based systems. Additionally the RPEG is able to use the CECF technology to prepare "uniquely labeled" proteins that are useful reagents for drug discovery and drug development.

"Ingenuity and innovation are critical to the success of our business and RPEG is a tremendous example of the entrepreneurial spirit that we encourage at Roche," said Martin Madaus, President and CEO, Roche Diagnostics Corporation. "RPEG is providing the drug discovery industry with an important component that was previously unavailable and will, in turn, lead to faster research and development. This business is a great opportunity for Roche as well as the proteomics community."

"RPEG is uniquely positioned to deliver proteins that are difficult to express by conventional protein expression technology. We aim to deliver the important proteins for drug discovery, not just on ones that are convenient to make," said Brian Holaway, Ph.D., Head of Marketing and Business Development for the RPEG.

The Roche Protein Expression group will leverage more than 20 years of expertise in protein biochemistry and the new cell-free technology to make preparative amounts of important proteins to the Structural Biology and Drug Discovery communities. For more information, please visit the RPEG website at www.rpeg.com.

About Roche and Roche Diagnostics

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's leading innovation-driven healthcare groups. Its core businesses are pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is number one in the global diagnostics market, the leading supplier of pharmaceuticals for cancer and a leader in virology and transplantation. As a supplier of products and services for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people's health and quality of life. Roche employs roughly 62,000 people in 150 countries. The Group has alliances and research and development agreements with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai. Roche's Diagnostics Division, the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics with a uniquely broad product portfolio, supplies a wide array of innovative testing products and services to researchers, physicians, patients, hospitals and laboratories world-wide. For further information, please visit our websites www.roche.com and www.roche-diagnostics.com.