Another great year for Swiss biotech

The chemistry, pharma and biotech sector contributed 44.8% of all Swiss exports in 2016. It is by far the country’s most important export industry. CHF80.3bn of the sector’s record CHF94.3bn originate from pharma, diagnostics and (medical) biotech companies. The remaining CHF10bn from agrochemical, plastics and fine chemical companies. Big pharma companies are responsible for the lion’s share of the exports, but more and more their success also depends on innovations made by small and medium-sized biotech companies. With 281 companies employing more than 15,000 people and a turnover of CHF5,730m this sector is still quite small – but it is growing fast. With an increase in sales of 11.7% compared to the previous year (2016 sales: CHF5,730m; 2015 sales: CHF5,130m), the „upward trend is getting stronger,“ the Swiss Biotech Association (SBA) and market research company EY conclude in their annual Swiss Biotech Report. The report was released in early May at the Swiss Biotech Day in Basel. Other main results include an increase in the number of employees from 14,890 in 2015 to 15,362 in 2016 (+3.2%), and a decrease in capital investments in Swiss biotech companies from CHF907m in 2015 to CHF823m in 2016. And whereas privately held companies managed to attract CHF39m more capital, publicly traded companies received CHF123 less than in 2015.

The Swiss Biotech Day 2017 brought together more than 500 senior executives from the Life Sciences industry across Europe. The event seems to gain traction among industry experts. Like in the past year, the organisers SBA and BIOCOM could celebrate a record number of attendees. Programme highlights included keynotes from Richard Ridinger, CEO of Swiss Lonza Group, and Johnson & Johnson innovation expert Nerida Scott. Besides presenting the Swiss Biotech Report 2017, the SBA held their annual general assembly at the Swiss Biotech Day in the Congress Center Basel. The next event will take place on 3 May 2018. 

In the picture, EY partner Jürg Zürcher (left), moderator Monika Jones, Christian Moser from the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property and SBA President Dominik Escher are captured while discussing the state of the Swiss biotech industry at the Swiss Biotech Day 2017.