Infrastructure for start-ups: the innovation park and BaseLaunch

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The Basel region has invested in infrastructure to support young life-sciences companies. The Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area is part of the national Switzerland Innovation network, which brings together parks in several regions under a common foundation.¹ Its main campus in Allschwil, which moved into a new building in the early 2020s, offers laboratory and office space to start-ups and to the research units of established companies. Allschwil, where Actelion, Basilea, Idorsia and many younger companies are located, has thus become a cluster comparable on a smaller scale to the biotech districts of Cambridge in Massachusetts or South San Francisco.

BaseLaunch, an accelerator for therapeutics companies founded in 2018 by Basel Area Business & Innovation, supports early-stage projects with seed financing, access to laboratories and contacts with industry partners.² Its partners have included pharmaceutical companies and venture funds that hope to identify promising projects early. Programmes of this kind address one of the main weaknesses of the European biotech landscape, namely the difficulty of turning academic discoveries into companies with professional management and adequate capital. They cannot replace the large financing rounds that a company needs for clinical development, which are mainly provided by international investors.

Notes

On the Switzerland Innovation foundation and the Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area with its sites, see the publications of Switzerland Innovation and Basel Area Business & Innovation. To be verified. ↩
On BaseLaunch, its foundation in 2018 and its partners from industry and venture capital, see the publications of Basel Area Business & Innovation. To be verified. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of August 2025.

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I am a Swiss attorney-at-law and also admitted as a solicitor in Hong Kong and in England & Wales, with almost 25 years of experience.

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Infrastructure for start-ups: the innovation park and BaseLaunch

Notes

Setting up or expanding in Switzerland?