Swiss biotech sector's R&D investment grew in 2024 despite global trends
Research and development (R&D) investment in the Swiss biotech sector grew in 2024, despite ongoing global funding struggles.
While many countries have seen a decline in investment in recent years, according to the Swiss Biotech Report 2025, investment into R&D in Switzerland reached SFr2.6bn ($3.16bn) in 2024, with private company investment accounting for SFr1.4bn of that.
Apart from R&D investment, companies in Switzerland raised SFr2.5bn in funds in 2024, a 22% increase on 2023. Revenues in the biotech sector were SFr7.2bn in 2024, slightly lower than SFr7.3bn in 2023.
Most pharma and biotech companies in Switzerland (95%) are private and in earlier stages of the development pipeline. The remaining 5%, including big pharma such as Roche and Novartis, are public. While the private fundraising market did relatively well in 2024, there were challenges in public markets, with no initial public offerings (IPOs) taking place by Swiss biotechs last year. The only capital market transaction in Switzerland in 2024 was a reverse merger transaction of Curatis.
The Swiss Biotech Report 2025, authored by the Swiss Biotech Association, EY and eight other partner organisations, was launched at the Swiss Biotech Day on 5-6 May in Basel.
The theme of the Swiss Biotech Report 2025, 'The Power of International Alliances', is pertinent given recent global political shifts favouring domestic operations. Last year, Swiss biotechs forged several partnerships with large pharma companies such as AC Immune and Takeda's Alzheimer's immunotherapy deal, Haya's long non-coding RNA therapy deal with Eli Lilly, and a partnership between Basilea and Innoviva to commercialise the former's antibiotic.
While the Basel-Landschaft-based Idorsia also signed a deal with Viatris centred on two Phase III assets in early 2024, the former did not later pay the required development costs due to low cash reserves, and consequently, agreed to accept a reduced future milestone payment.
Swiss Biotech Association CEO Michael Altorfer said: 'In an era when isolationist policies and 'me-first' approaches have gained traction, Switzerland's collaborative model offers a compelling counterproposal. None of the Swiss biotech innovators develops a new product or technology for the Swiss market alone.'
The report's theme also ties in with two key Swiss sector developments. Firstly, the Swiss innovation agency Innosuisse has assumed the chair of the Eureka innovation initiative - a network of 47 countries plus the European Commission (EC) - to expand non-dilutive global research grants. Secondly, Swissmedic, Switzerland's regulatory agency, will play a role in the Access Consortium, facilitating joint approvals across Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Singapore and the UK.
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