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Swiss pharmaceutical industry through the ages

Roche
Roche generated huge profits from synthesising and selling Vitamin C and other vitamins for decades. Keystone / Str

Switzerland is home to two of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and hundreds of other smaller biotechs and service providers. Are there lessons from Switzerland’s rise as a pharma hub over the last century and is the pandemic a reckoning for the industry?

We spoke with Basel-based cultural historian Tobias Ehrenbold in a live Instagram discussion about blockbuster drugs, marketing strategies, environmental scandals, innovations, and the challenges of navigating domestic politics abroad.

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Ehrenbold is the author of the biography of Samuel Koechlin, who was the first CEO of Ciba-Geigy, which are two Novartis predecessor companies that merged in 1970. He also wrote a volume on Roche in Asia and Oceania in the recently published history book on Roche around the world. He is currently working on a book on the modern history of Basel.

If you missed it live, you can re-watch our discussion below. Follow us on InstagramExternal link for more live talks, photos and videos.

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