Overview of the pharmaceutical industry in Switzerland
The pharmaceutical industry in
Switzerland directly and indirectly employs about 135,000 people.[1] It contributes 5.7% of the
gross domestic product of Switzerland and 30% of the country's exports.[1] In 2017 about 30% of Swiss exports (worth $84.8 billion) were chemical products.[2] In the same year Switzerland was the second largest exporter of packaged medicine in the world, with about 11% of the global total, worth $36.5 billion.[3]
Switzerland is home to many pharmaceutical companies, including very large groups, such as
Novartis and
Hoffmann-La Roche. In 2013, 41 life science companies had their international headquarters (and 29 more their regional headquarters) in Switzerland.[4][5]
1996:
Ciba-Geigy merged with Sandoz, with the pharmaceutical and agrochemical divisions of both staying together to form
Novartis. Other Ciba-Geigy and Sandoz businesses were sold off, or, like
Ciba Specialty Chemicals, were spun off as independent companies. The Sandoz brand disappeared for three years, but was revived in 2003 when Novartis consolidated its
generic drugs businesses into a single subsidiary and named it
Sandoz.
70% of the investments in life sciences in Europe are made in the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, France, and Switzerland.[4][5]
In addition to pharmaceutical companies (65 companies), Switzerland is home to many companies in the fields of biotechnology (338 companies) or medical devices and technology (341 companies).[4][5] According to
KPMG, there are 120 life science companies in
Basel, 132 in
Zürich and 92 in the
Lemanic region.[4][5]
In 2013, 41 life science companies had their international headquarters (and 29 more their regional headquarters) in Switzerland.[4][5] In Switzerland, there are about 51,000 workers in the field of
medical technologies (1,600 companies) and 13,700 on the field of
biotechnologies.[8]
Hubs
Basel region
According to Le Temps, there are about 900 pharmaceutical and
medtech companies (50,000 workers) in the region of
Basel.[8] The region of
Zurich, mainly active in
medical technologies employs 21,000 workers.[8]
According to L'Hebdo, there are 750 biotech and medtech companies (20,000 employees) in the
Lemanic region.[9] Among them, 450 companies develop and/or produce drugs.[9] In addition to that, there are 500 laboratories from universities and university hospitals (in the Lemanic region).[9]
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abc(in French) Dejan Nikolic, "Les sciences de la vie recrutent à Genève grâce à des ex-employés de Merck Serono", Le Temps, Tuesday 21 April 2015, page 13.
(in French) Karl Lüönd, Principe actif: la connaissance. Passé et présent de l'industrie pharmaceutique suisse,
Interpharma and éditions
Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 2008.