Roche Pharma changes agency

The pharmaceutical division of the Swiss chemical group Roche has chosen Bates as its new international agency. According to a report by Advertising Age, Bates has been awarded all accounts in Europe, Asia and South America that were previously handled by D'Arcy. With Bates, Cordiant Communications will now replace D'Arcy at Roche - with consequences for Switzerland as well: Zogg Kettiger Gasser (ZKG) in Zurich, which represented D'Arcy here in Switzerland, will have to hand over the budgets for the OTC drugs Aleve, Berocca, Elevit, Redoxon and Supradyn. The new account manager will be the Bern agency Contexta, which belongs to Bates. ZKG is consoling itself for the loss with the new creative budget from Roche for the prescription slimming drug Xenical.