Pharma Manufacturing & CDMO

ValIndex's multiples table puts Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturing at 8.0–12.0× EBITDA in transactions and 6.0–8.0× EBITDA on statutory valuations, among the highest of any sector. The premium reflects margins — listed Swiss CDMOs earned 23.5% to 34.6% EBITDA in their latest fiscal year — and the scarcity of GMP-approved capacity, which takes years to build. Equipment suppliers are more cyclical: SKAN's margin fell to about 11% in 2025.

Buyers price: (1) GMP-approved capacity and the inspection record with Swissmedic and foreign authorities; (2) technology position — peptides, biologics, highly potent active ingredients; (3) customer concentration and long-term supply contracts; (4) the investment still needed before capacity earns revenue; (5) exposure to US tariffs, capped at 15% for Swiss pharmaceuticals under the November 2025 deal; (6) the specialist workforce.

BFS STATENT counted 343 pharmaceutical manufacturing enterprises in 2024 — 53 making active ingredients and basic products and 290 making finished preparations — with 57,696 employees, 48% more than in 2011. Chemical and pharmaceutical exports reached a record CHF 152 billion in 2025, 53% of all Swiss exports (BAZG). The largest listed contract manufacturer, Lonza, had 2025 sales of CHF 6.5 billion.

Most of the industry is owned by multinationals and listed groups, so ownership changes through the stock market or group transactions — Lonza bought the Vacaville site for CHF 1.1 billion in 2024 and is exiting its capsules business. Owner succession matters for the mid-sized generic and contract manufacturers and active-ingredient producers in Ticino, Aargau, Zug and western Switzerland; for them a sale to a CDMO or a strategic buyer is the usual exit.

Five trends: (1) record exports of CHF 152 billion in 2025 despite US tariffs, with pharma tariffs capped at 15% for Switzerland; (2) CDMOs grow and invest — Lonza +21.7% at constant currency, CHF 10 billion invested since 2020; (3) peptide capacity is the bottleneck — Bachem expects 35–45% growth in 2026; (4) small-molecule CDMOs expand in Aargau (Siegfried, Dottikon ES); (5) equipment suppliers such as SKAN follow the investment cycle.

The main risks are: (1) US trade policy, including the Section 232 tariffs from 31 July 2026; (2) pressure to move production to the US — Roche and Novartis pledged USD 73 billion of US investment; (3) customer concentration; (4) regulatory and inspection risk at GMP sites; (5) the cost and delay of new capacity; (6) the strong franc. Due diligence should review inspection histories, supply contracts and the capex pipeline.

No official cost split exists for the industry. Published results give the range: in the latest fiscal year Dottikon ES earned a 34.6% EBITDA margin, Lonza 31.6% (CORE), Bachem 30.9% and Siegfried 23.5% (core), while the equipment maker SKAN earned about 11%. For Siegfried, operating costs — materials, personnel, energy and other — absorbed about 76% of net sales.

Basel is the centre, with 24,516 employees in 2024, 20,516 of them in Basel-Stadt where the Roche and Novartis headquarters are registered. Valais follows with 6,897 employees around Lonza's Visp complex, then western Switzerland (6,373), Aargau (5,034, with Siegfried and Dottikon ES), Central Switzerland (4,137) and Ticino (2,997), which has the most independent mid-sized manufacturers outside Basel.