Swiss biotech continues to do well

More than 450 Life Sciences stakeholders from across Europe came to Basel in mid-April – more than ever before in the 18-year-long history of the Swiss Biotech Day. The participants could positively feel the animated pulse of the Swiss biotech sector. On one hand, a record-breaking 420 business meetings were scheduled via the event’s still quite new partnering system. On the other hand, the industry numbers collected and presented by the Swiss Biotech Association and EY for the annual Swiss Biotech Report indicate a healthy development: Net sales of all biotech companies domiciled in Switzerland increased by CHF248m compared to the previous year and now total CHF5,133m, crossing the CHF5bn barrier for the first time in the history of Swiss biotechnology.

Capital investments increased from CHF719m in 2014 to CHF907m last year. The company meter indicates growth, as well: 279 compared to 264 in 2014. As one of the keynote speakers, Jürg Zürcher from EY reported the latest developments, noting that the total number of employees amounted to just short of 15,000. Compared to last year, the number of people employed in privately held companies decreased slightly to 7,184 (from 7,276). On the other hand, publicly traded companies remunerated considerably more people than in 2014 (7,706 instead of 7,216). According to Zürcher, this shift can be attributed to a large part to the successful IPO of Belgium-based Biocartis NV roughly one year ago. Biocartis was founded in 2007 by Belgian Rudi Pauwels – among others – in Lausanne, Switzerland. It continues to have a strong workforce there which of course is indexed in the report. 

Capital investments increased for the 3rd consecutive year. But whereas in 2014 private companies had collected the highest amount of money ever (CHF473m), the CHF433m in 2015 represent a small drop on a nevertheless high level. For publicly traded companies, 2015 was without a doubt a great year: They managed to rake in CHF474m – almost doubling the 2014 number.  

Dominik Escher, President of the Swiss Biotech Association SBA, diagnoses the state of the industry his organisation represents as healthy: “We have maintained and strenghtened our position.” As in the previous years with the so-called mass immigration initiative and the removal of the euro peg, Swiss politics is a cause for worry lines: The Zurich Tax Office has issued new rules for the taxation of startups which, according to Escher, represent a “huge burden for shareholders and option holders”. He predicts high-tech startups to leave Zurich if the regulation remains as it is now.