Annually you are eligible for shares (via a grant vesting over several years) of the parent company, Roche, which is privately held. You won't get anything for joining/signing on
Are you folks clueless. Novartis held a chunk but could not get the family who holds the voting controlling what's to sell the majority to them. It is essentially privately held since all the voting shares are held by a small handful of Roche family members. The stocks given out and traded are non voting second tier shares. Valuable yes.