CEO out at Indianapolis’ Roche Diagnostics, company offers no explanation

INDIANAPOLIS, Indiana — The chief executive of Roche Diagnostics, a supplier of diabetes products and an arm of a Swiss pharmaceuticals giant, is gone and the company is offering no further details.

A successor to Michael Tillman, who held the job for 18 months, has not yet been identified, according to news reports.

Roche spokeswoman Wendy Baker-Stein didn’t return a call. Baker-Stein did not provide a reason for Tillman’s departure, when contacted by the Indiana Business Journal and Indianapolis Star. She said a replacement would be named “shortly,” and declined to provide further details.

In recent years, the company has steadily lost market share in two of its major products — insulin pumps and glucose monitors, the Business Journal reported. Insiders speculated big changes could be coming once a Roche veteran took over as head of the Swiss firm’s diagnostics business on Jan. 1, and Tillman’s meeting with the chopping block appears to be one of the first. It’s even possible that the company could exit the U.S. market.

Roche employs about 2,900 in the Indianapolis area, which is the firm’s North American headquarters. Some of its parent company’s major drugs include Avastin, which treats colorectal and breast cancer, and Tamiflu, a treatment for influenza.