Picture : In 1996 the pharmaceutical giant UCB Farchim arrived in Bulle. Its Fribourg facility is the main producer of Cimzia, one of the group’s most successful drugs which is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease.

“I have been in this industry for 25 years and I have to say that things have evolved considerably. Today, academia and industry communicate and understand one another much better than before.” Peter Schwind, Chairman of the Board at Medion Grifols Diagnostics, is a keen observer of the Fribourg economy. The company, which is part of the powerful Spanish healthcare group Grifols and specializes in the manufacture of blood transfusion reagents, is experiencing a period of exceptional growth, “In the space of 10 years, we have doubled our workforce and tripled our turnover.”

As well as this upswing in business, Dr. Schwind is delighted at the cantonal government’s proactive approach to fostering technology transfer and academia-industry collaboration. “It is extremely important for the business community to be able to tap into the expertise offered by Fribourg’s higher education institutions. Exemples include the HEIA-FR (Fribourg School of Engineering and Architecture), which does incredible work, as well as cutting-edge research centers like the Adolphe Merkle Institute and the Swiss Integrative Center for Human Health (SICHH), which fully understand the importance of industry-research partnerships. We also need to consider incubators like blueFACTORY, the Marly Innovation Center and Le Vivier, all of whom benefit from real hands-on support from the Fribourg Development Agency. As a result, the canton now boasts an impressive set of first-rate technology transfer instruments.”

Sincerity and pragmatism

At UCB Farchim, part of the Belgian biopharmaceuticals behemoth UCB, the same message comes across loud and clear. This specialist manufacturer and distributor of drugs that treat allergies, epilepsy and autoimmune diseases has invested over CHF 600 million in its plant in Bulle. As Nicolas Hug, Product Technical Lead at UCB Farchim, explains, “We are building a number of partnerships with universities, research institutes and centers of expertise in Fribourg and the rest of Switzerland. They include the HEIA-FR, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Biofactory Competence Center, which is an invaluable source of expertise and advice. At UCB, our research is really focused on collaboration and pooling of knowledge to improve our productivity and process efficiency while minimizing the impact of our activities on the environment.”

The Product Technical Lead is also quick to single out the down-to-earth mindset of the Fribourgeois for praise, “Having lived and worked in Italy, Germany and Belgium, I was very moved by the simplicity of the welcome I’ve received, as well as the sincere desire to help, pragmatic outlook and readiness to seek out shared solutions.”