It all started with the establishment of Switzerland’s first chair in biotechnology in 1982. On the ETH Hönggerberg campus, Prof. Armin Fiechter and his team operated an unusually versatile biotechnology pilot plant. The facility combined scientific expertise, industrial collaboration and infrastructure for process development and scale-up. Its equipment covered several orders of magnitude:
This infrastructure was not simply academic equipment. It became a platform where research could be translated into industrial processes. Public investment provided much of the infrastructure, while contract research and close collaboration with industry helped finance its operation and ensured a continuous flow of relevant projects. Fiechter’s ability to attract industrial projects and secure the funding required to operate the facility was undoubtedly a key factor in sustaining this impressive pilot plant over such a long period. This unique combination of scientific expertise, pilot-scale infrastructure, industrial collaboration, and entrepreneurial spirit helped bridge the gap between laboratory research and industrial application.
Many production processes were successfully scaled up in Armin Fiechter’s pilot plant. Among the processes developed and demonstrated at the facility was the production of interferon-α using a recombinant E. coli strain developed by Prof. Charles Weissmann and produced at the 3,000 L scale by Prof. Armin Fiechter. The pilot plant also supported the scale-up of more challenging processes, such as the production of the surface-active compound rhamnolipid. In collaboration with Ciba-Geigy AG, the institute further established bioreactor design criteria for the large-scale cultivation of mammalian cells.
Half a century later, biotechnology is one of Switzerland’s most important economic strengths. The chemical, pharmaceutical and life sciences industries accounted for more than half of Swiss exports in 2025. Therapeutic proteins, vaccines, cell therapies and other immunological products alone contributed close to 20% of total Swiss exports, contributing CHF 57.4 billion to the Swiss economy.
But the next wave of biotechnology will extend well beyond healthcare. Biological processes are increasingly being developed for food, materials, chemicals, energy and environmental applications. This requires a broader technological toolbox, including gas fermentation, solid-state fermentation, and phototrophic fermentation, as well as process integration and continuous operation.
The challenge is therefore not only to generate new biological ideas, but to turn them into robust and economically viable industrial processes. This is where access to pilot infrastructure becomes essential.
Switzerland has considerable expertise and several facilities that support this transition.
Together, these facilities form a valuable basis. What appears to be missing, however, is broadly accessible and flexible bioprocessing infrastructure at the cubic-meter scale – particularly infrastructure that can accommodate processes beyond established pharmaceutical manufacturing.
The question is therefore whether Switzerland needs a new generation of shared scale-up facilities. Such infrastructure would not necessarily reproduce the ETH pilot plant of the 1980s. Modern biomanufacturing is more diverse, and no single reactor concept can serve every application. But the principle behind the model of the early 1980s remains relevant: combine infrastructure, scientific expertise and industrial collaboration in one ecosystem to translate an increasing diversity of biological processes and products from the laboratory into economically viable, scalable, and industrially relevant applications.
How Switzerland can strengthen this ecosystem will be discussed within the SATW Topical Platform Biotechnology, bringing together partners from research, industry and other relevant organizations. Please do not hesitate to contact us at any time if you would like to contribute to the discussion.
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| Text by | Hans-Peter Meyer |
