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Roche suspected of hiding data on adverse drug reactions
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
The pharmaceutical company Roche is suspected of concealing data on adverse reactions to the use of drugs produced by the company, Agence France-Presse reports, citing the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The shortcomings in the pharmaceutical company's activities were revealed during an audit conducted by specialists from the British Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Experts found about 80 thousand reports on the use of various Roche drugs in the United States, the earliest of which date back to 1997. Among these reports were information about the deaths of more than 15 thousand people.
However, as the auditors found out, the company did not properly process the information received. In particular, Roche employees did not investigate the causes of death of Americans who took the company's drugs. They did not find out whether the patients died as a result of adverse reactions to taking the drugs or whether they died as a result of existing diseases. In addition, Roche representatives did not report the information received to the supervisory authorities.
The pharmaceutical company acknowledged the shortcomings of its employees, noting that the errors were made unintentionally. In a published statement, Roche expressed its intention to present the results of the analysis of the previously missed reports by January 2013.
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