Biotech evolving into a mature industry

The Swiss Biotech report shows the favourable economic development of the pharmaceutical biotech sector last year:

• Net sales of all biotech companies domiciled in Switzerland amounted to a total of almost CHF 5 billion in 2014
• Capital investments in biotech companies increased from 418 to 719 million CHF compared to 2014. This increase is largely due to the flotation of Auris Medical on the NASDAQ and Molecular Partners on the SIX Swiss Exchange
• A total of 264 companies are active in the Swiss biotech sector, following a number of recent start-ups and companies moving here from abroad
• The number of employees in the Swiss biotech sector amounts to over 14’000. In total about 60’000 people are working for the industry itself and for suppliers and service companies.

The number of companies is growing steadily since 2005. One important reason for this are the activities of Swiss universities to support spin-offs. “Academia is pushing researchers to start new companies”, said Domenico Alexakis, Director of the Swiss Biotech Association. This holds especially true for Lausanne and Geneva. Last year more new biotech companies have been founded in Western Switzerland than in the German speaking part.

Jürg Zürcher, co-author of the Swiss Biotech Report and Partner at EY, is optimistic for 2015, too. “It’s a hot field”, he said. Although there is “heat in the market”, the speaker at the presentation of the Biotech Report didn’t want to speak of a “bubble”. There are good reasons for the high investments and the prices paid for acquired companies. “The industry matured”, said Dominik Escher, President of the Swiss Biotech Association and CEO of ESBAtech. More than 300 biotech products are already approved and on the market. Due to scientific progress diseases are understood much better today, which reduces the risk in the development of biotech products.

It was very encouraging to see that Switzerland plays an important role in this maturing industry. The number of patents is almost as high as in countries such as Germany or Japan. Investors are very active in Switzerland and last but not least the Swiss Exchange is still a very attractive place for an IPO.  

The Swiss Biotech Report highlights the most important innovation drivers and summarises themes and facts regarding the development of the Swiss biotech industry. The focus is on industry performance data in the pharmaceutical sector compared with the previous year. Innovations in biotechnology provide lasting support for a wide range of sectors in the economy. The report will be available soon on the website of Swiss Biotech.