Where can I find a graph showing the fluctuations in the price of the
stock of the company Roche Holdings (maker of Tamiflu) and Hoffman-La
Roche over  the last year? What is the difference and the relationship
between the two companies. Are they considered a good investment at
this time?

jujyja-ga,

Hoffmann-La Roche is the US subsidiary of Roche Holdings, which has
its headquarters in Switzerland.

The Yahoo Finance description of the companies (which is based on
Hoover's Online information) is very positive about the performance of
the Roche companies:



http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/41/41787.html
Roche Holding Ltd Company Profile 

...Roche is on a roll... Roche's prescription drugs include cancer
therapies Rituxan and Herceptin, antibiotic Rocephin, obesity
treatment Xenical, AIDS drug Invirase, acne medication Accutane, and
Tamiflu, which is used to prevent and treat influenza. The company
markets many of its bestsellers with affiliates Genentech and Chugai
Pharmaceutical. Roche's diagnostics arm offers advanced DNA tests,
diabetes monitoring supplies, and point-of-care diagnostics used in a
variety of health care settings...

Subsidiaries & Affiliates  
?  Genentech, Inc. (DNA)  
?  Hoffmann-La Roche Inc.  
?  Iogen Corporation  
?  Roche Colorado Corporation  
?  Roche Diagnostics Corporation  
?  Roche Holding (UK) Limited  



The write-up for the Roche subsidiary, Hoffmann-La Roche, can be seen here:


http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/43/43933.html
Hoffmann-La Roche Inc. Company Profile  
 
 
...Hoffmann-La Roche is the US prescription pharmaceuticals unit of
Roche. The company develops and makes drugs to treat such
life-threatening conditions as AIDS, cancer, and heart
disease....Hoffmann-La Roche's products include influenza fighter
Tamiflu, controversial acne medication Accutane, HIV inhibitor Fuzeon
(co-marketed with Trimeris), obesity drug Xenical, and hepatitis C
therapy Pegasys...


====================


Neither company trades on the major US exchanges.  Roche Holdings, as
a Swiss company, is traded on European exchanges.  It's stock prices
on the Berlin exchange, for instance, can be seen here:
 
 
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=RHO.BE&t=1y


52wk Range: 114.22 - 149.30 
Last Trade: 132.24 


As you can see, it is currently down a bit off it's high for the year.



Should you wish to invest in a drug company traded on the US market,
you may want to consider one of Roche's major competitors, which
include:

 
?  Dade Behring Holdings, Inc. (DADE)  
?  Pfizer Inc (PFE)  
?  Schering-Plough Corporation (SGP)  
?  Abbott Laboratories (ABT)  
?  GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK)  
?  Sanofi-Aventis (SNY)  




I trust this information fully answers your question.  

However, please don't rate this answer until you have everything you
need.  If you would like any additional information, just post a
Request for Clarification to let me know how I can assist you further,
and I'm at your service.

All the best,

pafalafa-ga


search strategy -- Used bookmarked sites for financial information

---

Request for Answer Clarification by jujyja-ga on 20 Jul 2006 21:25 PDT

pafalafa-ga,

Thanks for excellent job you did and sorry for so late reply. You
suggested me write you further question. I wonder if I still need it? 
 I want to get back to you shortly with some other economic research
questions, how would you suggest me do that?

---

Clarification of Answer by pafalafa-ga on 21 Jul 2006 05:24 PDT

I'm glad to hear back from you, and thank you so much for the kind rating.

And please feel free to post additional questions to Google Answers at
any time.  There are many excellent researchers here waiting to assist
you. but if you want to direct a question to my attention, you can
certainly do so.  Just put something like "For pafalafa-ga" in both
the subject of the question, and in the question text, and I'll be
sure to see it.

Cheers,

paf

Excellent job, answered all my question here.