Geneva and Basel belong to the most dynamic Life Sciences locations worldwide

The new Life Sciences Report of BAKBASEL shows that the Life Sciences industry has generally demonstrated high growth, in most cases exceeding the average growth rate of the aggregate economy of the monitored locations in 15 countries worldwide. Between 2000 and 2010, the highest growth rates of regional gross value added in the Life Science industries were observed in the regions Shanghai, Cambridge, Geneva and Basel. Comparing the Life Sciences locations, the Shanghai region was distinguished by the highest number of employees, as well as the highest growth rate in value added between 2000 and 2010. Another point worth noticing is that many regions with enormous growth rates between 1995 and 2000 have not been able to sustain such growth rates over the last ten years. Notable exceptions to this are Shanghai, Cambridge, Geneva and Zurich, which have all managed to record recent annual growth rates well above those of the 1995 to 2000 period.
 
The growth and importance of the Life Sciences industry reflect its contribution to the total economic growth of the region. Nowhere else is the Life Sciences industry as important to the local economy as in the Basel region. More than 1.7 percentage points of the total 2.4 percent average annual GDP growth between 2000 and 2010 was generated by the Life Sciences industry alone. This high contribution can be explained by the strong cluster of highly performing pharmaceutical companies in the region. In the Geneva region, the Life Sciences industry has also played a key role due to its very dynamic growth. However, the relocation of Merck Serono's headquarters out of Geneva will temporarily hamper the future growth of the region.
 
The Life Sciences industry is not just very promising and dynamic, it also has demanding requirements for its host locations. Besides generally important framework conditions such as taxation and regulation, a region's innovation capacity is a crucial factor in attracting companies. Nowadays, competition between companies in knowledge-intensive businesses is no longer driven primarily by price, but rather by innovation. The monitored regions were compared according to various location factors. In 2010, the highest share of expenditures on R&D to GDP was found in the Basel region. This high share was mainly driven by the local pharmaceutical industry which invests intensively each year. The San Francisco Bay Area, Munich, Cambridge and the three Swiss regions were the top regions in terms of concentration of patents in the field of Life Sciences.