Disetronic Medical Systems: using Roche as a springboard to ... - Bern

Medical Cluster Morning Talk
Burgdorf, 5 June 2007
Disetronic Medical Systems: using
Roche as a springboard to global success
Circle of Care is the comprehensive Roche Diabetes Care strategy developed for diabetics.
Stefan Aebi, General Manager of Roche Diabetes Care subsidiary Disetronic Medical Systems
AG, explained to the Medical Cluster Morning Talk how the firm has forged ahead since its
takeover by Roche in 2003, investing primarily in meeting increasingly stringent quality
standards.
Over the last twenty years, Disetronic has
become a leading supplier of insulin pumps.
Since its takeover by Roche in 2003 and its
integration into Roche Diagnostics, Disetronic
has formed part of Roche Diabetes Care, the
world leader in the comprehensive treatment of
diabetics, adding ever-better manual blood
sugar monitors to its range of insulin infusion
sets.
Circle of Care
The trend, according to General Manager
Stefan Aebi, is towards interactive intelligent
systems which allow users to administer the
right insulin dose for their blood sugar level at
any given moment.
Blood sugar monitoring, data evaluation and
insulin infusion using an insulin pump have
made the “Circle of Care” dream come true.
As part of the Roche Diabetes Care division
which employs 5 800 people around the world,
the 350 employees at Disetronic in Burgdorf
work closely with their Roche counterparts in
other locations, especially Mannheim in
Germany and Indianapolis in the USA, where
the Accu-Chek blood sugar monitors are
manufactured.
Quality and international connections
For Stefan Aebi, joining the Roche Group was
the right move: it has allowed the company to
invest heavily in quality assurance over recent
years and thus meet increasingly stringent
safety standards for medicinal products.
National and international staff exchanges
within the Roche Group have made jobs more
attractive and boosted creativity.
International recruitment
More highly trained employees are needed in
order to cope with increasingly stringent
manufacturing standards for medicinal
products and, according to Stefan Aebi, Swiss
education institutions have some catching up
to do here. It is very difficult at present to find
suitable specialists in the following fields:
• intellectual property rights, where highly
specialized knowledge is required
• regulatory affairs, where trained specialists
are needed to deal with the strictly

egulated licensing of drugs and medical
devices
• connectivity, where IT specialists are
needed to design the interfaces needed to
exchange information between devices
• good manufacturing practice (GMP),
where specialist knowledge and
experience in specific quality standards
are needed in order to work in medical
technology.
More attractive environment needed
Although the high level of medical and
microtechnology education available in the
Canton of Berne means that Disetronic
Medical Systems is well placed in Burgdorf to
recruit new graduates in these disciplines,
rather high personal taxes in the Canton of
Berne and what many perceive as the region’s
somewhat unattractive image sometimes make
it hard to find new staff.
“The events organized by the Medical Cluster offer an excellent opportunity for targeted networking
between larger companies, specialist SMEs and representatives from education and training, with
points raised by individual companies, such as the need to recruit new graduates, leading to valuable
discussion.”
Dr. Heiko Visarius, Medtronic
Contact
Disetronic Medical System AG Medical Cluster
Kirchbergstrasse 190 c/o innoBE AG
3401 Burgdorf Postfach 261
3000 Berne 22
Tel: 034 424 24 24 Tel: 031 335 62 23
info.disetronic@roche.com mail@medical-cluster.ch
www.disetronic.com www.medical-cluster.ch