The University of Basel, which is known for its life sciences research, has helped secure the city\u2019s regional reputation for medicines development that has, in turn, drawn more companies to the area. This has helped create a \u201csmall city that\u2019s totally focused on life sciences,\u201d Kl\u00f6pper told Fierce Biotech in an interview.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you go to a bar, the chances are quite high that the person next to you is a life sciences person,\u201d he said. Other factors that have helped draw companies from Europe and further afield are attractive tax incentives by the science-sympathetic regional government and the fact that \u201cit’s an attractive place to live and to do business,\u201d Kl\u00f6pper explained.<\/p>\n
Where once a company like Johnson & Johnson would have swooped in to acquire an appetizing Basel-based biotech, now the Big Pharmas are more likely to \u201cstay here and set up research divisions,\u201d Kl\u00f6pper explained.<\/p>\n
In fact, J&J did just that\u2014setting up offices at the Basel Innovation Hub, a new site on the outskirts of the city. The hub\u2019s headquarters were inaugurated in 2022 and, since then, the likes of antibody-drug conjugate-focused Alentis Therapeutics<\/a>, Versant Ventures-backed Bright Peak Therapeutics<\/a>, and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute have all moved in.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Basel Innovation Hub sign<\/p>\n The Basel Innovation Hub opened in 2022 and continues to grow. When Fierce met Kl\u00f6pper inside the headquarters\u2019 wood-paneled modern offices, it was clear that the hub district is still very much in development, with two large empty lots expected to be filled up by further new buildings by 2029.<\/p>\n He described the transformation of Basel from primarily hosting large pharma and chemical companies like Roche, Novartis and Sinochem-owned Syngenta into a home for hundreds of biotechs as a \u201ccorporate cluster that turned into an ecosystem,\u201d much like Boston did over the past few decades.\u00a0<\/p>\n The key to this ecosystem\u2019s success are the employees. While they might start off being enticed to Basel by a job offer at a Big Pharma, the high quality of living means they are likely to stay and find their next role at another life sciences company in the city.<\/p>\n This is where Basel\u2019s \u201cstrategic location\u201d comes in, according to Kl\u00f6pper. Tucked into a corner of north Switzerland that borders both France and Germany, biopharmas can have their pick of talent spread across three countries. In fact, Fierce spoke to one of several Roche employees who commute to work via bike each morning from a nearby village in Germany\u2019s Black Forest.<\/p>\n \u201cIf an American company comes to Europe, it’s quite complex to tackle the European market,\u201d Kl\u00f6pper explained. \u201cBasel has quite a lot to offer to live with this complexity, because it’s easy to hire people on the German or the French side.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Basel<\/p>\n \u201cIf you go to a bar, the chances are quite high that the person next to you is a life sciences person,\u201d BABI CEO Christof Kl\u00f6pper told Fierce. The city\u2019s excellent transport links mean it\u2019s also common for biotech staffers to take the one-hour train into work from Zurich, another hot spot for Swiss science. Maximilien Murone, Ph.D., a liaison officer at the Swiss Biotech Association, is keen to put Basel\u2019s blossoming biotech role in the context of this wider national framework.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what makes Switzerland more of a [biotech] hub as a nation is the fact that the country is quite small and everything is quite close,\u201d Murone told Fierce. \u201cSo it doesn’t take much time to go from one location in Zurich to Basel [or] Basel to west Switzerland.\u201d<\/p>\n When it comes to securing money, biotechs have the option of regional government funds, as well as the Swiss Innovation Agency<\/a>, which supports science-based startups with their R&D work. Murone also described Deep Tech Nation Switzerland<\/a>\u2014a non-profit set up to finance innovation\u2014as \u201csuper important\u201d for the national biotech funding landscape.<\/p>\n Last year, Swiss biotechs raised more than 2.5 billion Swiss francs ($3 billion) in 2024, a 22% increase on the previous year, according to the association\u2019s most recent report<\/a>. A total of 800 Swiss francs ($985 million) of this was raised by privately owned biotechs, led by Alentis\u2019 163 million franc<\/a> ($200 million) series D and SixPeaks Bio\u2019s $110 million<\/a> from a combination of a series A round and a deal with AstraZeneca. Both Alentis and SixPeaks are based in Basel.<\/p>\n The city has a \u201clong history\u201d in the life sciences, Murone explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCenturies ago, they were producing pigments to dye clothes and other things,” he said. “And then from there they moved, slowly but surely, to developing medicines.\u201d<\/p>\n A key pillar in this history is Roche. The company was founded in Basel in 1896 by Swiss businessman Fritz Hoffmann, whose experience of a devastating cholera outbreak in Germany led him to create one of the first companies specifically set up to manufacture scientifically researched pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n Roche may now have a $260 billion market cap and employees spread across over 150 countries, but the company\u2019s heart remains in Basel. In fact, the twin towers of Roche\u2019s headquarters on the banks of the river Rhine are the tallest buildings in the city, dominating the skyline for miles around.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Roche headquarers towers, Basel<\/p>\n The Roche towers dominate the Basel skyline for miles around.
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