Basel Life Sciences Scene Embraces International Companies, Startups

Basel, Switzerland, has long been known as the place where Novartis and Roche are headquartered, but its reputation has expanded well beyond that, according to Basel Area Business & Innovation CEO Christof Klöpper.

“It has transformed itself into an ecosystem with many players from a city of Roche, Novartis only,” he told BioSpace.

The Basel area is home to over 800 life sciences companies and 33,000 employees, according to Basel Area Business & Innovation, which helps startups, institutions and companies find business success in the Basel area. High-profile employers in the region include Abbott, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Johnson & Johnson, Lonza, Moderna and Syngenta.

Klöpper said one reason for the evolution is that American businesses have entered the European market by setting up company or regional headquarters in the area. Companies have also built a presence in Basel through mergers and acquisitions, he added, citing J&J as an example. The New Brunswick, New Jersey–based pharma in 2017 acquired Actelion, headquartered near Basel, for $30 billion.

Startups and spinoffs have also played a role in the evolution, according to Klöpper, because there’s an active academic scene in Switzerland, which he said has some of the best universities in continental Europe. Those schools include research-oriented University of Basel, which emphasizes life sciences and medicine.

Klöpper attributed Basel becoming more entrepreneurial in part to Novartis and Roche bringing international employees—and therefore Americans’ entrepreneurship attitude—to the area. It’s now acceptable to not only form a startup but also to have it fail, he noted. Klöpper said that hasn’t always been a European way of doing business, as failure can be seen as negative, particularly in a German-speaking environment like Switzerland.

“So, it’s OK to fail with one if you do it better with the next one,” he said of the cultural change. “This I’ve always admired in U.S. entrepreneurship.”

Some scientists and entrepreneurs get help launching their businesses from BaseLaunch, a Basel-based biotech accelerator and incubator that provides assistance from inception to Series A funding. It provides financing of up to $500,000 per venture. Since 2018, according to Basel Area Business & Innovation, BaseLaunch has supported 24 ventures, and nine portfolio companies have raised over $800 million total. Their average first VC round was over $28 million per company.

In addition to startups and spinoffs, the Basel area is also home to medium-sized businesses, including up-and-coming midsized biopharmas such as Anaveon, BeOne Medicines (formerly BeiGene), Idorsia, LifeMine Therapeutics and T3 Pharmaceuticals, according to Basel Area Business & Innovation.

BeOne, a global oncology biopharma, established its European headquarters in Basel in 2018 to leverage the region’s deep pool of scientific talent and partnership opportunities, according to Aaron Rosenberg, chief financial officer. He told BioSpace in written interview responses that earlier this year, the company redomiciled its global entity from the Cayman Islands to Basel to strengthen its roots in the world-class global life sciences hub.

“It is a thriving global center for life sciences, combining deep pharmaceutical roots with a rapidly growing biotech and innovation community,” Rosenberg said. “The region brings together world-class research institutions, major industry leaders, and a highly skilled international workforce, fostering collaboration and continuous scientific advancement.”

There are several reasons Basel is a good location for life sciences businesses and entrepreneurs, according to Klöpper and Rosenberg. One Klöpper shared is that the city helps businesses deal with the complexity of the European market, where factors such as languages as well as payer systems, which affect product reimbursement, can be challenging. He explained that Basel is advantageous because it lies in three countries—France, Germany and Switzerland—and therefore has people who speak multiple languages and understand multiple systems.

Rosenberg said Switzerland’s central position ensures that life sciences companies have a robust network of connections across the continent and globally and eases entry into international markets.

“This positioning provides access to exceptional talents, infrastructure, networks, and partnership opportunities essential for business and pipeline development,” he said.

Another advantage of the Basel area, according to Klöpper, is that it’s easy to work with local authorities, such as tax or immigration specialists, to set up a business because they understand life sciences. For example, he said, “If you have to set up a lab, people will understand how to set up a lab. It’s nothing that they haven’t done hundreds of times.”

The Basel area also has a fantastic labor pool given the talent coming from its pharmas and universities, according to Klöpper. He noted that early on, U.S. companies that started doing business in Basel were surprised at how easily they filled open positions with good people. Klöpper said they may have benefited from the groundwork laid by Roche and Novartis, as the employers gave many employees good job experience, creating a fantastic labor market for other organizations.

There are some challenges for life sciences companies in Basel, according to Klöpper and Rosenberg. One Rosenberg noted is that competition for talent is high, given the concentration of leading biopharma companies in the area. Another, he said, is that real estate and living expenses can be significant.

Klöpper also commented on cost issues, noting that the cost of living is higher in Switzerland than in other European regions. That said, he also highlighted that the country has some of the highest salaries in Europe, which is reflected in a Euronews analysis this year. Using Eurostat and OECD data for 2023, Euronews found the average full-time adjusted salary per month in Switzerland is €8,104, which is about $9,308, making it the highest-paying country in Europe.

Life sciences professionals can optimize their situation by receiving a Swiss salary while not living on the Swiss side, Klöpper advised. As an example, he noted that people living nearby in France can have a very nice house with a nice garden at a decent cost. The Livingcost cost of living calculator supports his recommendation, finding that the average cost of living in France is 46% less expensive than in Switzerland.

Life sciences professionals who do choose to live in Basel will have a good quality of life, Klöpper noted. He pointed to factors such as a safe environment where young children often travel to school alone and fantastic healthcare at low cost. Those benefits tend to make an impression on U.S. life sciences professionals who move to Basel, according to Klöpper.

“Due to the quality of life, quite a share of them in the end stay, at least until the end of their professional career,” he said.

Klöpper and Rosenberg have a positive outlook for the Basel area’s life sciences scene five years from now. Klöpper expects more startups and international companies to come in and hopes a recent trend of private investment in research and development institutes continues. Rosenberg said Basel’s role as one of the leading global life sciences centers should keep expanding.

“The region is well positioned to evolve beyond its traditional pharmaceutical base into a broader innovation hub, encompassing biotechnology, digital health, and data-driven medicine,” he said. “We can also anticipate increased collaboration between academia, startups, and established companies will drive new discoveries and sustain the region’s leadership in advancing human health.”

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