In the shadow of the pharmaceutical companies, their suppliers have grown massively – and want to continue doing so in the future.
The Swiss pharmaceutical companies are often in the limelight. Be it because they are launching innovative medicines, because they charge high prices for medicines, or because they are seen as driving the economy.
The pharmaceutical suppliers are often forgotten, although they are becoming more and more important. They produce many active ingredients for the pharmaceutical companies without their name appearing. Above all, the suppliers have been growing much faster than the pharmaceutical companies for years, creating thousands of jobs.
Bachem: World market leader from the Basel area
The best example is Bachem from Bubendorf. The Basel-based company has doubled sales since 2018 to over half a billion francs and hired 630 new people in Switzerland during this time. Bachem is the world market leader in the production of peptides. These are large molecules that are used as active ingredients, for example against cancer, diabetes or, more recently, against obesity. However, Bachem is not allowed to name any customers.
Bachem boss Thomas Meier sees several reasons why they produce these peptides for pharmaceutical companies: “When pharmaceutical companies outsource production to a supplier, they are more flexible and even cheaper.” In addition, the pharmaceutical companies are increasingly dependent on the specific expertise of the suppliers.
Production returns to Europe
Sibylle Bischofberger, analyst at Bank Vontobel, sees other reasons for the great growth of the suppliers: “New, innovative medicines have come onto the market. And if these go well, pharmaceutical companies cannot produce everything on their own.” There is also a trend to bring production from China and India back to Europe, for example to the pharmaceutical country of Switzerland.
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In addition to Bachem, the other listed Swiss pharmaceutical suppliers will also benefit. First and foremost is Lonza, which produces the Covid vaccine for Moderna in Visp and other biotech active ingredients. Lonza does not give exact figures, but has created over 2000 new jobs in the last three years, mainly in Valais. Siegfried and Dottikon ES, which also produce active ingredients, have also grown strongly.
Currently 600 vacancies
The growth is also continuing unabated. This can be seen in the vacancies: Lonza is currently looking for 240 people in Switzerland, Bachem 230, Dottikon 100 and Siegfried around 30, so a total of around 600 people.
But that’s not all: the four companies are currently investing hundreds of millions of francs in Switzerland. Bachem wants to increase the workforce in Bubendorf by 800 people to around 2000 and is planning a new production site in Sissler Feld in Aargau, initially with 500 employees.
Also on Sissler Feld, Lonza is building a new factory with 400 employees. Siegfried expects around 100 additional jobs in Germany and Dottikon with 200. If the plans work out, the pharmaceutical suppliers will create around 2,300 new jobs in the next few years and will supply the world with active ingredients “made in Switzerland”.