With growing uncertainty in US financial markets and research funding, Chinese companies are swooping in to present themselves as stable, open partners to the Swiss biotech sector. At a time of trade wars and geopolitical tensions, a conference under the theme “international collaboration” seems like something from a bygone era. But that was indeed the tagline of the Swiss Biotech Day annual conference, which took place from May 5-6 in Basel, and was the largest on record with 3,000 participants – around 45% of whom came from abroad. As a small country, Switzerland relies heavily on foreign partners for research and economic growth. This is even more the case for biotech companies that are often small and looking for partners for capital and expertise to develop and bring new drugs to market – a process that typically takes 10-15 years. But stock market volatility, cuts to biomedical research funding and potential tariffs on pharmaceuticals are creating uncertainty around ...
