Switzerland: A rising hub for cell and gene therapies

From watches to chocolate to ski resorts, “made in Switzerland” has long implied quality and innovation.

The life sciences sector is no exception to this trend. The sector is a backbone to the Swiss economy, accounting for 38.5% of the country’s exports and representing the country’s largest export industry. With a well-established infrastructure that spans the entire pharma value chain from APIs to manufacturing, Switzerland is uniquely positioned to become a specialized hub for the most promising area of advanced medicine — cell and gene therapies.

The global cell and gene therapy market is projected to grow from $18.3 billion in 2023 to an estimated $97.33 billion by 2033. While these therapies are complex and expensive to develop and manufacture, the promise of delivering actual cures across a wide range of diseases is driving ongoing investment.

Switzerland made headlines following the 2023 approval of the world’s first CRISPR–Cas9 gene editing therapy, Casgevy, made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Zug, Switzerland-based CRISPR Therapeutics. Since then, the Swiss CGT ecosystem has been further strengthened through significant growth in resources, investments and collaborations.

“We’re seeing a growing number of companies choosing Switzerland for its robust ecosystem, stability, geographic advantage, and world-class infrastructure,” says

Sirpa Tismal, director of global marketing for investment promotion at Switzerland Global Enterprise. “The country’s unique blend of research institutions, service providers, and talent pool continues to attract leading players in this transformative field.”

Pharma giants lead the way

With its business-friendly climate and attractive tax environment, Switzerland has attracted many of the world’s largest multinational pharma companies. Novartis, Roche and Lonza Group all call Switzerland home. Known names such as Merck KGaA, Biogen, Bristol Myers Squibb, CSL Bering and Takeda all have growing footprints in the country.

In 2019, Novartis inaugurated a new manufacturing facility for cell and gene therapies in Stein, about 20 miles up the Rhine from the company’s Basel headquarters. The $100 million facility employs 1,700 and offers manufacturing areas for novel CAR-T cell therapies as well as difficult-to-manufacture solid dosage forms.

Roche, who recently strengthened its capability in allogeneic CAR-Ts through a $1.5 billion acquisition of Poseida Therapeutics, opened a new Pharma Research and Early Development (pRED) center in September 2024 at its global headquarters in Basel. Among many initiatives, the center will help accelerate the discovery and development of new cell therapies in oncology, ophthalmology, neurology, hematology and immunology.

Commenting on Roche’s CGT initiatives, Markus Haindl, head of PTC Gene Therapy, stated: “To make these new therapies available globally, we need to adopt new paradigms. We are committed to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in CGT development and manufacturing.” Roche formed Pharma Technical Cell & Gene Therapy (PTC) in 2022 to focus specifically on end-to-end CMC development and manufacturing for CGT.

SMEs making an impact

Pharma giants aren’t the only companies making an impact in Switzerland. In 2024, the private biotech sector was a standout with a 44% increase in invested capital. This strong biotech growth is driven primarily by start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Several young Swiss biotechs have shown impressive progress in the CGT space:

Avrion Therapeutics (Lausanne) was spun off from the Swiss Federal Technology Institute of Lausanne (EPFL) in 2020. The company is based on research from EPFL’s Brain Mind Institute and the Bertarelli Foundation Gene Therapy Platform developing AAV gene therapy solutions targeting genetically defined neurological disorders.

Antion Biosciences (Geneva), founded in 2019, is developing innovative allogeneic therapies to cure diseases with significant unmet medical needs through microRNA (miRNA) engineering. Earlier this year, the company announced that it had developed next generation anti-CD19 CAR-T cells, aiming for a best-in-class solution to treat and cure B-cell driven autoimmune diseases

Muvon Therapeutics (Zurich) is a biotech spin-off from the University of Zurich developing a therapeutic platform for the regeneration of skeletal muscle tissue based on autologous cells, not only repairing damaged tissue but also increasing the regenerative potential of weakened muscles. In early 2025, Muvon has a planned phase 2 interim data read-out for its innovative tissue-engineered regenerative therapy to treat stress urinary incontinence.

Tigen Pharma (Lausanne), founded in 2017, focuses on T cell-based therapies to cure cancer. Earlier this year, Tigen signed an option agreement with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City to advance its autologous CD371 armored CAR-T technology for treating acute myeloid leukemia. 

CDMOs are ready to meet demand

The high quality standards upheld by manufacturers make Switzerland a go-to option for companies looking for contract manufacturing services.

Lonza Group’s Visp site, the largest site in its manufacturing network, produces an array of products including mammalian and microbial biopharmaceuticals, small molecules, highly potent APIs, peptides and bioconjugates including antibody-drug conjugates. In September 2024, Lonza signed a long-term commercial supply agreement with Vertex for its CRISPR/Cas9 gene-edited cell therapy, Casgevy, which will be made at Lonza’s Netherlands site.

Novartis also has CDMO offerings in Switzerland, with a high-tech facility capable of producing gene-based cell therapies such as CAR-T and viral vectors such as AAV and LV.

Niche CDMOs, such as Enable Biotech, founded in 2023 in Zug, focus on the needs of smaller, clinical-stage companies.  Focusing on pre-clinical to phase 1/2a production, Enable offers R&D and GMP capacity for early-stage cell therapies, gene-modified cell therapies such as CAR-T, and exosome therapies.

Last year, NewBiologix (Lausanne) emerged from stealth mode with a proprietary platform for the advanced engineering of cell lines used to manufacture gene and cell therapies. The company is currently focused on recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors, the preferred delivery vehicle for gene therapies. Specifically, the company’s technologies will be applied to human (HEK-293) and mammalian (CHO) cell lines which will be engineered to be readily adaptable to meet the industry’s viral vector demands.

Growing CGT talent

Much of Switzerland’s success as CGT hub can be attributed to its highly skilled workforce. Igor Fisch, CEO of NewBiologix, says that the country’s education workforce and high retention rates make it an ideal place to hire CGT talent.

As the number of biologics and other complex products coming to market rises, a major priority has been to maintain a sufficient pool of qualified personnel at all levels. While the attractiveness of Switzerland to foreign professionals helps bolster the workforce, the country also works hard to build talent internally as well. The IMD World Talent Ranking 2024 recently put Switzerland in first place out of 67 countries when it comes to developing its own talent. One driving factor helping ensure this is the strength of Swiss vocational education, which offers students the opportunity to complete apprenticeships alongside vocation training onsite at pharma companies.

To meet the increasing demand for talent in CGT development and manufacturing in Switzerland, several new training initiatives have emerged.

The Biofactory Competence Center, a unique biopharma training and research facility in Fribourg, Switzerland, opened a new gene therapy lab in September 2022. The state-of-the-art facility is designed to help meet the growing needs of the Swiss industry in terms of the training of specialized personnel in the production of viral vectors

The University of Zurich’s Center for Therapy Development/GMP aspires to be a premier Swiss destination for research, training and technology transfer in regenerative medicine. As an interdisciplinary translational research center and core facility for GMP,  the Center utilizes a combination of approaches such as gene therapy, stem cell transplantation, macro and micro-scale tissue engineering, functionalized biomaterials, and the reprogramming of cell and tissue types.

The Department of Biomedicine (DBM), a joint venture of the University of Basel and the University Hospitals Basel, has developed a variety of specialized programs to provide support and guidance to students and staff. DBM has in-house facilities for areas such as GMP,  flow cytometry and cell sorting, as well as access to core facilities jointly operated with other research institutions including a life sciences training facility for gene expression profiling.

Switzerland, with a total population just under 9 million (about the size of London), boasts 47,000 people employed directly in life sciences, with another 258,300 in allied roles.

Extending Switzerland’s life sciences range

Switzerland’s thriving life sciences sector with its innovative environment, commitment to quality and skilled workforce has created the ideal environment for continued success in the emerging cell and gene therapy sector, with the Alpine country  positioning itself to rise as a  global hub.