The digital revolution is changing every facet of how businesses and healthcare organizations operate.

What Advanced Manufacturing means for the biopharma industry

For pharmaceutical powerhouses like Basel-based Roche and Novartis, the revolution in data science and advanced digital technologies is transforming patient care.

Novartis says its goal is to reach twice as many patients, twice as fast, and realize sizeable productivity improvements in its manufacturing facilities. It believes that through its digital strategies, it has the potential to reduce the time to market for new drugs by more than two years.

Roche adds that the days of mass treatments, which weren’t effective for all, have now largely evolved into a new era of personalized healthcare with a more holistic view of patient health generated from a wide variety of data sources.

Such a data-driven patient-centric ecosystem requires a high level of coordination, standardization, and analysis, all of which rely on the collaboration of healthcare companies and technology partners. Perfect chemistry for seeding growth in supporting technology companies in both healthcare and manufacturing in general.

Who are the key players in the field of Advanced Manufacturing in the Basel Area?

Endress+Hauser is a global leader in measurement instrumentation, and services and solutions for industrial process engineering. The company uses a cloud-based Industrial IoT (Internet of Things) ecosystem to connect the physical and the digital world. It uses digitalization to make knowledge available to customers to help them optimize their processes and make fact-based decisions fast.

Headquartered in central Basel, the Straumann Group epitomizes the Swiss reputation for quality, precision, and innovation. Employing a global workforce of around 9,000 people. It’s a world leader in dental implantology. It researches, develops, manufactures, and supplies dental implants, instruments, biomaterials, CADCAM prosthetics, digital equipment including a range of sophisticated 3D printers and software, and clear aligners for applications in replacement, restorative, orthodontic and preventative dentistry.

Skan is a Swiss company and a global market and technological leader for isolators, cleanroom devices, and decontamination processes for the aseptic production of biopharmaceutical substances. Today it has more than 1000 employees. More than half of its employees work at the Allschwil headquarters in the Life Sciences Hub of the Basel region.

In 2020, Tokyo-based Yokogawa, a global leader in industrial automation and test and measurement solutions, established a subsidiary  Yokogawa Innovation Switzerland in Basel to accelerate R&D and market development activities for its bio-economy business. At its new offices in Allschwil, it has been joined by Yokogawa Europe’s existing Swiss branch for its industrial automation business.

The rise of the Smart Factory

Among the many significant advances in manufacturing, processes, and production in recent times is the increased use of technology and automation. It has led to what is described as “Smart manufacturing” or the “Smart Factory”. Broadly, it’s about employing computer controls, computer modelling, big data, robotics, and other automation to improve manufacturing efficiencies.

Key players in the field of Advanced Manufacturing in the Basel Area include:

Actemium Schweiz AG offers engineering services and projects in the areas of Mechanical Execution Systems (MES), electrical engineering, and industrial and building automation. Across six businesses, it employs over 200 people.

Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Basel, Medartis is one of the world’s leading manufacturers and providers of medical devices and titanium implants for fixing bone fractures and head injuries. It employs around 700 people across its 14 locations globally, with products offered in over 50 countries and annual sales of CHF 160 million.

An exciting recent development has seen the establishment of uptownBasel, a 70,000 square meter international centre of excellence for Industry 4.0. On a site at Arlesheim, a development and production hub has been created where selected technology companies and other organizations will be located. The focus is on industrial manufacturing, healthcare and logistics sectors as well as the interdisciplinary function of digitalisation. As a platform for connected companies, uptownBasel aims to drive knowledge transfer between sectors and disciplines.

One of the first companies to take advantage of the opportunities and facilities provided by uptownBasel was VINCI Energies, the energy, information and communication technology division of the global VINCI Group. It recently set up an international security operations center (SOC) in uptownBasel with its brands Axians (ICT) and Actemium (industrial technology). As a hub, the SOC will connect more than 300 cybersecurity specialists from Switzerland, Germany and other European countries, focusing on Industry 4.0 security, bundling expertise in information and communications technology (ICT) and industrial operating technology (OT), as well as processing the findings from international scientific collaborations regarding critical infrastructures.

So why is the Basel Area such a hotspot for the Advanced Manufacturing sector?

Traditionally, Switzerland has long held a fine reputation for quality, precision, and trust. Think of the watch industry, for instance.

But what makes the Basel Area unique is that it has been able to attract a wealth of large corporate companies, spin-offs, and start-ups.

There are more than 2,400 companies with manufacturing activities and over 700 life-sciences organizations. It has a combined talent pool of over 63,000 interdisciplinary and highly educated professionals with strong engineering expertise and knowledge transfer capabilities.

Companies are attracted by the area’s key strategic geographical position in the heart of Europe and bordering key markets like Germany and France. There are first-rate road and rail infrastructure and an international airport on the doorstep. There’s progressive Federal and local government, and favorable tax, grant, and venture opportunities.

Basel Area is also a major center for academic and research and development institutions, providing collaboration between top universities, teaching institutions, and industries. These include the University of Basel, HE-Arc  and FHNW – the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Northwest Switzerland.

Besides working in Switzerland, did we also mention the quality-of-life benefits of living in Switzerland, one of the most picturesque regions in Europe?