Roche Holding, the Swiss pharmaceutical company, on Friday announced that its cancer drug Avastin failed to help men suffering from late-stage prostate cancer live longer in a clinical trial, extending another setback to the company as it seeks to extend use of the blockbuster drug into new areas.

Following many deaths, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus drugs are being pulled off by Swiss pharmaceutical companies Roche and Biogen. After being observed by monitoring board, the two drugs were found to be immensely infectious and even deadly in some cases.

Roche Holding AG's cancer drug Avastin, one of the Swiss pharmaceutical company's best-selling drugs, showed positive results in the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer.

A late stage trial found that the drug in combination with chemotherapy and use of Avastin, increased the time women live healthily.

For treating rheumatoid arthritis in patients a new type of drug was approved on Friday by the Food and Drug Administration Friday. The drug approved is by Roche Holding AG's Genentech unit.

It took almost a year for the approval to come. The FDA had asked for additional data on the drug, Actemra from the company.

Giant drug manufacturer Roche holdings has claimed that its once a week experimental drug, which is currently still under development, definitely works better for treatment of type 2 diabetes as compared to the currently popular drug Januvia, manufactured and marketed by Merck.

Confounding initial expectation, in what was a keenly watched melanoma study, Roche’s Avastin failed to make the goal, even though there was an encouraging trend that suggested patients given Avastin together with chemotherapy for difficult-to-treat skin cancer showed a meaningful improvement in overall survival, which raised hopes of a breakthrough.

Tuesday saw Roche Holding AG calling a new head for its main pharmaceuticals division. This development occurred after the drug maker took full control of U. S.-based biotech firm Genentech earlier this year, in a deal worth $47 billion.

According to the findings of a new research disclosed at the American Society of Clinical Oncologists' annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, Roche Holding AG's blockbuster breast-cancer drug Herceptin can also be safely used for the treatment of a subtype of stomach cancers.

In its bid to takeover the minority shareholders of Genentech Inc, the Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG has made its offer more tempting - with the new proposition of $45.7 billion upgrading its offer of $86.50 a share to $93 a share!