Vifor Pharma receives Biotech award
St.Gallen – Switzerland’s biotech industry continued to grow in 2018, the Swiss Biotech Report from EY has found. At the presentation of this report, St.Gallen company Vifor Pharma was also honored with an award.
Last year was once again a success for Switzerland’s biotech industry. Not only did the number of companies increase, but growth was also recorded in sales, liquidity, exports and research investments. These are findings from the latest Swiss Biotech Report, which was presented by consulting firm EY on Tuesday.
The sector in Switzerland consisted of 249 biotech developers and 63 suppliers last year, which is in both cases an increase on the previous year. The number of employees also rose by around 4 percent to over 14,300. In 2018, sales in the biotech industry were up 6 percent to total 4 billion Swiss francs.
Capital investment in listed biotech companies saw an especially striking increase. They raised 1.26 million francs overall in 2018. This figure was above all attributable to a few companies receiving major investment. Privately held biotech companies received investment of 357 million francs. Of capital investment and sales generated in 2018, around 30 percent then went into research.
EY presented its latest report at the Swiss Biotech Day. In the context of this event, the Swiss Biotech Association honored several companies with Swiss Biotech Success Stories Awards in recognition of outstanding achievements across the biotech industry. They included Vifor Pharma from St.Gallen, a leading company offering therapies for the treatment of kidney diseases.