BASEL, SWITZERLAND and CHALFONT ST GILES, UK - Roche and GE Healthcare, a division of the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), today announced a collaboration aimed at developing personalized care for patients with Alzheimer’s disease. In controlled clinical trials, patients taking a Roche anti-amyloid drug candidate for Alzheimer’s disease will be monitored clinically for drug response using GE’s positron emission tomography (PET) diagnostic imaging agent. This proprietary PET technology measures and tracks levels of beta-amyloid, a form of brain plaque believed to cause memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease patients. Previously, the presence of plaque could only be confirmed during autopsy.

Both Roche and GE will independently analyze patient data to monitor the progression of the disease and then share information to validate the efficacy of both the therapeutic product and the diagnostic tool. The data gathered will aid both companies in submitting necessary and comprehensive data to regulatory authorities for approvals.

“This collaboration is an early step in experimental medicine,” said Peter Hug, Roche’s Global Head of Pharma Partnering. “Using GE’s innovative technology allows Roche to test the efficacy of our product more accurately than was previously possible, which in the long term, will help us efficiently advance through clinical development, potentially helping patients sooner.”

“This imaginative and ground-breaking agreement demonstrates how medical equipment and pharmaceutical companies are increasingly collaborating with the aim of developing innovative, more effective and safer treatments. The collaboration between Roche and GE should allow clinicians to identify effective treatments earlier for this debilitating disease. Increasing clinical value at the intersection of diagnostics and therapeutics is one way that GE is carrying out its mission to transform healthcare from “Late Disease” to “Early Health,” said Bill Clarke, Chief Technology and Medical Officer, GE Healthcare.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

About Alzheimer’s disease

According to the World Health Organization, it is estimated that there are approximately 18 million people worldwide suffering with Alzheimer’s disease, a figure projected to nearly double by 2025 to 34 million.

About GE Healthcare

In 2003, GE Healthcare licensed a broad class of imaging compounds from the University of Pittsburgh. These compounds attach to beta-amyloid plaque in the brain allowing the plaque to be imaged with PET. By using these compounds to measure the levels of beta-amyloid during clinical trials, it should be possible to measure the effectiveness of drug therapies being developed by Roche to combat Alzheimer’s disease.

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies that will shape a new age of patient care. GE Healthcare’s expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, disease research, drug discovery and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is dedicated to detecting disease earlier and helping physicians tailor treatment for individual patients. GE Healthcare offers a broad range of services to improve productivity in healthcare and enable healthcare providers to better diagnose, treat and manage patients with conditions such as cancer, neurological and cardiovascular diseases.

GE Healthcare is a $14 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) that is headquartered in the United Kingdom. Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 42,500 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries.

About Roche as a Partner

Roche is a valued partner to over 50 companies worldwide. In the past two years, Roche has led the pharmaceutical industry in the number of product deals signed. In 2004, Roche Pharma Partnering brought nine potential products into the company and strengthened Roche’s positions in oncology, virology and primary care. Roche’s alliance strategy is to create a partnering culture where innovation flourishes and the partnership grows.

About Roche

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, a 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 65,000 people in 150 countries. The Group has alliances and R&D agreements with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai.