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NewsBright Future Seen forSwiss Biotech UnitsDespite black clouds hovering over global stockmarkets, the long-term financial future of the Swissbiotechnology sector remains bright, say industryexperts.Executives from the biotech and pharmaceuticalindustries joined investors and researchers in Genevarecently for the start of the seventh annual BioDataconference in Geneva."Swiss biotech is by far the most advanced and maturebiotech sector in Europe. BioData therefore representsan important forum for the industry," Frankfurt-basedinvestor, Kai Brünig, said."It's an important meeting place for the Swiss life sciencessector and essential for the economies of the LakeGeneva and Rhône Alps regions," Pierre-François Unger,canton Geneva's minister in charge of economy andhealth, told the 350 participants.According to the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs(Seco), with 137 biotech companies and 81 biotechsuppliers, Switzerland boasts the world's highest percapita biotech density.Long-term futureAs global stock markets kept experiencing turbulenceamid fears of a worldwide economic slowdown, biotechinvestors and industry experts in Geneva tried to calmparticipants' nerves."While the short-term is going to be tough, the long-termis bright for the sector," said Ulrich Kinzel, director atNomura Code Securities."Fundamentally the biotech sector should be optimisticabout the future, but there's no question that we are in adifficult market environment right now," agreed SimonMoroney, CEO of biotech firm Morphosys, whichrecently signed a $600 million (SFr660 million) deal withSwiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis.37The regional two-day event, the largest of its kind inSwitzerland, provides a unique opportunity for young,innovative start-ups from the Lake Geneva and Franco-Swiss Rhône Alps regions to present their projects whichmight lead to longer-term partnerships, fundingagreements and scientific cooperation."We shouldn’t forget that the pharmaceutical industry isvery powerful and has extremely deep pockets." Kinzeladded: "There are lots of bargains in the biotech sector; thebottom clearly has still not been established. In the futurewe will see rich licensing deals by big pharmas, there willbe more biotech mergers and we shouldn't forget that newmarkets are developing such as in central and easternEurope, Russia and Asia."The problem, according to the experts, is that anyonewanting to invest in biotech needs patience to "hold outuntil the markets recover". This is why other areas of lifesciences, such as medical technology, have been a recentfocus for investors, BioData chairman Hervé de Kergrohensaid."Investors want to balance their portfolios between biotechand medtech [medical technology]. Medtech generatesquicker exits and a less risky bet, while biotech requires amuch longer horizon and bigger investment sums," heexplained.Helping handA large part of the early success of young biotech start-upsis also down to regional synergies and a helping-handfrom the right people. Since 2001, BioData has beencollaborating with the Lake Geneva life sciences clusterBioAlps."This year we are going to support a dozen new start-upsfrom the region such as Leman Cardiovascular, ArisGen,DiagnoSuisse and Med Discovery," said Lionel Eperon,BioAlps's president.But for the region to keep its competitive edge, privatebanking and business angels should wake up andparticipate at the early stages of biotech companies suchas Actelion, Addex and Speedel, added de Kergrohen. "Ifthey do that, this part of the world could be even moresuccessful in the life sciences sector," he said. INDO-SWISS BUSINESS + JAN-FEB 2008
NewsSwiss Nanotech Initiative toImprove Quality of LifeNanotechnology could be soon applied to monitoringhealth, the environment and security on a large scalethanks to a new national initiative in Switzerland.The Nano-Tera project could also provide an opportunityfor engineering research and education to match theresults of more traditional scientific endeavours.Nanoscience and nanotechnology involve studying andworking with matter on an infinitesimal scale. Onenanometre is one-millionth of a millimetre and a singlehuman hair is around 80,000 nanometres in width.While there are many projects involving nanotechnologyin Switzerland, the time is now right to make the next step,according to the project initiators."Switzerland has opportunities because it's a technologyleader," Giovanni De Micheli, chairman of the Nano-Teraexecutive committee said in Bern recently. "The idea is toconnect the small picture with the big picture."Broadly speaking, the project aims to improve quality oflife for the Swiss population as well as create innovativeproducts that could provide a boost to the economy byintegrating nanotechnology into so-called embeddedsystems."We want to anticipate what future products will be withthis programme," said Patrick Aebischer, president ofLausanne's Federal Institute of Technology. The initiativealso hopes to attract industrial partners at a later date withthe promise of widespread use of some products.An athlete's or a patient's heart could, for example, bemonitored using a smart shirt that connects to a widernetwork and provide up-to-the-minute information tomedical specialists.Hard taskAccording to De Micheli, western nations must re-evaluate their approach if they are to withstand increasedcompetition from Asia in particular and attract the beststudents again.Nanotechnology has already reached a point where itspractical use for monitoring can be considered. However,developing entire systems will be no small task, accordingto Boi Faltings, head of the artificial intelligencelaboratory at the Lausanne institute."We will be building a large number of small devices thatwill generate a large amount of data," he said. "Some ofthe challenges will be about how to manage these38systems, how to ensure they are reliable."According to Faltings, monitoring the environment withnanotechnology, for example, will provide a moreaccurate picture for specialists, allowing them to detectnew phenomena and trends, such as how pollutionaffects people."We cannot hope to deal with disease simply by analyzinggenes," he added. "Why not analyze people to see howthey react to pollution? We don't know that much so weneed to collect data."One possibility would be to use systems developed by theproject to track pandemics such as bird flu. There areconcerns though that implementing such systems couldbe detrimental to a person's privacy if they are beingconstantly monitored. Faltings admits that this can beproblem, but that it can be overcome."There are new technologies being developed that dealwith data without revealing the source of thatinformation," he said. "The aim is not to identifyindividuals, but to answer overall questions."Re-injecting lifeThe Nano-Tera project will cost around SFr120 million($110 million) over the next four years. One of the maingoals is to re-inject some life into the once mightyengineering sector, particularly at universities."We would like to show that engineering is not just sittingbehind a computer," he said. "It's about creating systemsthat can have an impact on society.”INDO-SWISS BUSINESS + JAN-FEB 2008
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