Large Indian pharma companies are currently focusing on generics and biosimilars in particular, while Basel-based firms such as Novartis and Roche carry out large-scale research projects, as detailed in a guest article on swissinfo.ch by Anke Hollnagel, Director Asia of the local business promotion organization BaselArea.swiss. However, there are also parallels and mutually beneficial influences between the two locations.

In this way, four startups based in Basel – namely Cellestia, Bottmedical, Artidis und Noul – presented their businesses within the framework of the BioAsia India event, which was held in Hyderabad on February 17-20, 2020. The Swiss delegation came at the initiative of Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE), a Swiss foreign trade promotion organization. The delegation also included representatives from BaselArea.swiss, which promoted the economic area of Basel at the event.

However, the interest is ever stronger in the other direction, as Anke Hollnagel notes in her article. In this context, Basel is becoming an attractive location for ever more Indian firms. These companies are active particularly in the areas of the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning, and they are offering their services to Basel-based firms operating in the field of life sciences. In this way, they are driving the development of the life sciences sector towards digital healthcare and data-led personalized medicine. According to Anke Hollnagel, this influence will increase yet further over the coming years as Indian firms develop. The major Indian pharma group Dr. Reddy’s has already established a strong presence in Basel.

BaselArea.swiss recognized this development a long time ago and has placed a stronger focus on the Indian market in the past year. This focus will be sustained throughout 2020 as well.