Fritz Hoffmann-La Roche

Friedrich "Fritz" Hoffmann-La Roche respectively Hoffmann-von der Mühll (24 October 1868 18 April 1920) was a Swiss industrialist and businessman who founded the pharmaceutical concern F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co (presently known as Roche) in 1896.

Early life and education Hoffmann was born 24 October 1868 in Basel, Switzerland, the third of five children, to Friedrich Hoffmann (1838–1897), silk ribbon manufacturer, and Anna Elisabeth Hoffmann (née Merian; 1845–1913), into a Protestant family belonging to the Daig. His paternal and maternal families belonged to the Daig.

Hoffmann completed compulsory schooling Basel. In 1886, he completed an apprenticeship at a bank in Yverdon-les-Bains, in Romandy. He ultimately returned to his home town, where he became a trainee at Bohny, Hollinger & Co, a pharmacy in Basel. Between 1891 and 1892 he worked in London, and between 1892 and 1893 in Hamburg to further his experience in chemistry-related business. called Hoffmann, Traub & Co., which manufactured a limited range of pharmaceutical and chemical products. His father contributed the majority of the capital, and Traub some patents and contracts. In 1896, Traub left the company and it was renamed F. Hoffmann-La Roche & Co. In the same year, Hoffmann employed the well regarded chemist Emil Christoph Barell, who was a noted personality in the company until the 1950s. He was responsible for the development of Sirolin, cough medication, that despite its ineffectiveness made the company commercially very successful.

Hoffmann became independently wealthy and opened several branches of the firm in Germany (1897), Paris (1903), New York (1905), Vienna (1907), London (1908), St. Petersburg (1910) and Yokohoma (1912). In 1918, the company was consolidated into a stock corporation.

Personal life In 1895, Hoffmann married Adèle La Roche (1876–1938), daughter of Emanuel Alfred La Roche (1840–1923), a raw silk merchant, and Adelheid "Adele" La Roche (née Passavant; 1847–1927), who both also hailed from the Daig. Her mother was the older sister of Carl Passavant. She was the second child of Count Andreas Razumovsky and Princess Katharina Nikolajevna Sayn-Wittgenstein, who fled Russia in 1918 after the October Revolution. Together they had four children: Vera, Maja, André, and Daschenka. Alfred Hoffmann (1898–1987),

Hoffmann died on 18 April 1920 aged 51.