The TMT Ministry will hold an event to promote investments in the life sciences sector in Zurich (Switzerland), at the conference approximately 80 participants from Swiss companies are expected, among them giants such as Novartis Debiopharm, Syngenta. The great interest shown by the key players in Switzerland shows the global reputation of the Israeli life sciences industry and the interest in Israeli technology
The TMT Ministry will hold a conference on September 6 in Zurich (Switzerland) on encouraging investments and cooperation between Switzerland and Israel in the fields of life sciences. The conference is organized by the commercial association in Switzerland in cooperation with the headquarters for the promotion of investments in the Ministry of Trade and Industry. About 80 people from large pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical equipment companies - such as Novartis Debiopharma and Syngenta - will participate in the conference, which is being held for the first time. In addition, Swiss funds and investment bodies in the field of life sciences have confirmed their participation.
During the event, the Israeli capabilities in the field of scientific R&D and the unique Israeli advantages in the field of knowledge transfer from the academy to industry will be presented, as well as the unique incentive package provided by the chief scientist at the Ministry of Science and Technology to foreign investors in the fields of life sciences. In addition, Swiss companies that have invested in Israel will appear.
The commercial attache at the Israeli Embassy in Switzerland Ami Levin said that the purpose of the event is to position Israel as a destination for investments in R&D or production, on the part of Swiss companies. "Swiss companies are constantly looking for investment targets outside of Switzerland," adds Levin, "the potential for strengthening relations between Switzerland and Israel in this area is enormous, Switzerland can be a source of capital and technological innovations for Israeli industry and at the same time benefit from the capabilities of Israeli industry, which is one of the most attractive places in the world in terms of Technological progress and human capital in the field of life sciences".
Rachel Roy, director of the headquarters for the promotion of foreign investments in Israel, says that this is not a one-time move "within the framework of the activity to encourage foreign investments in Israel in the fields of life sciences, a field that was declared by the chief scientist at TMT as a field of national importance and many resources are directed to its development - Switzerland has emerged as one of the target countries The main ones as far as international cooperation in this sector is concerned. About a year ago, the Swiss Minister of Science Pascal Couchepin visited Israel with a delegation of academics, researchers and businessmen. The Swiss Minister was deeply impressed by what he saw during the visit and the businessmen continued to come to Israel. As a continuation of the conference, a delegation of Swiss companies from the field of life sciences will be organized during 2007 to come to Israel to examine investment options in Israel. It is known that technological developments in the field of life sciences take many years, even in the field of encouraging investments, these are multi-year processes, we started during and hope to see in the near future new Swiss players coming to Israel to examine cooperation and investment options."
Among the speakers at the conference to be held in Zurich are Dr. Rafi Hoffstein, CEO of Hadassit, a subsidiary of the Hadassah organization, Yigal Ehrlich, Chairman of the Research and Development Institute and a partner in the Initiative Fund, Dr. Ora Der, Director of the Life Sciences Department at the Office of the Chief Scientist of the TMT. From the Swiss side, Aharon Graff, Vice President at Ferring Pharmaceuticals, and Dr. Giampiero De Luca, Vice President for Intellectual Property at Serono, will talk about their experience with Israel.
Switzerland is a major player in the field of life sciences and its pharmaceutical industry is one of the largest in the world. The life sciences sector is highly developed in Switzerland, and is characterized by a high level of basic research conducted in research institutions as well as in the companies themselves.
The Swiss pharma and chemical market is dominated by the giant companies Novartis and Roche, ranked 3rd and 4th respectively in the overall ranking of Swiss companies. The turnover of each of these companies in 2004 was about 25-30 billion dollars. In addition to the above two companies there are other big players such as Clariant, Ciba, Syngenta.
The biotech and medical equipment markets in Switzerland number approximately 633 companies and employ 23 thousand people (133 companies employ 13 thousand in biotech, approximately 500 companies employ 10,000 in the field of medical equipment) most of the companies in these sectors are small and medium-sized companies including start-ups. The well-known names in these sectors in Switzerland are Actelion and Sarono, which are traded on the stock exchange. In recent years there has been a tendency towards mergers between small companies and the search for investment opportunities outside of Switzerland.
The Administration for Foreign Trade in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that the volume of trade between Israel and Switzerland in 2005 was 2.19 billion dollars, of which 717 million dollars were Israeli exports - an increase of 8% from 2004, and 1.47 billion dollars were imports from Switzerland, a decrease of 22% from 2004. Most Israeli exports to Switzerland are diamonds (over 80%) and the rest communication products, software, electro-optical products and chemical products. Israeli imports from Switzerland are diamonds, chemical and pharmaceutical products and electro-optical products. From the analysis of the trade data for the first half of 2006, it appears that there is a change in the trend that characterized trade in 2005 and that Israeli exports to Switzerland are on a downward trend, while imports from Switzerland remain stable.
