The stock is up around 38% over the last one year. Over the longer term also, the stock has done well with decent returns for the investors. It has been a bit volatile over the last few months, but is starting to look strong again. As mentioned in an article on Motley Fool, Roche is a good stock for investors looking for conservative growth. In the first half of fiscal 2013, its group sales rose 5%, and the core earnings per share climbed 12%. The HER2 franchise grew 11% to around $3.55 billion, accounting for 14% of the company's top line. It has been working with experimental companies like Inovio (INO). This could help it prepare for the patent expirations starting next year for Herceptin ($6.3 billion in sales in fiscal 2012). The new subcutaneous formulation of Herceptin which was recently approved in the EU is also likely to help make up for the loss. Roche's exclusive worldwide license deal with Inovio will support continuous research, development and commercialization of Inovio's SynCon technology vaccines for prostate cancer and Hepatitis B. The deal mainly gives Roche exposure to the high potential prostate cancer market and access to electroporation technique for administration of vaccines. This drug delivery technology is promising though the technology itself is still in the trials phase and will be subjected to regulatory approvals etc. As mentioned in an article on Trefis, there are other drug delivery technologies like the QuSomes of Biozone (BZNE). This technique (liposomal delivery of drugs) is also very promising with OPKO Health (OPK) having a licensing agreement with Biozone for testing / commercialization of QuSomes. Even QuSomes can find place in drug delivery for cancer treatments. Hopefully, the deal will help both Roche and Inovio in the long term.
