Shifting Patterns in Switzerland’s Patent Landscape

Switzerland is continuing to break records when it comes to patent activity. In 2024, the European Patent Office received 9’966 applications from Switzerland, which is nearly 40 percent more than in 2015. When you look at the number of applications per million residents, Switzerland is still far ahead of everyone else with 1’140. By comparison, Sweden reaches 472 and Germany 300, showing just how large Switzerland’s lead really is.
Pharma and biotech, however, are no longer the main contributors to this rise. According to the EPO Patent Index, medical technology accounted for 10.5 percent of Swiss filings in 2024, measurement technology for 9.1 percent, consumer goods for 8.3 percent and electrical machinery for 8.2 percent. Pharmaceuticals represented 4.7 percent and biotechnology 4.3 percent. Innovation is expanding, but the centre of gravity has shifted away from pharmaceuticals.

A temporary spike and a return to trend

The difference compared with the pandemic period is striking. In 2021, the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property reported strong growth in pharma and biotech patents, rising 6.9 and 6.6 percent respectively, driven by vaccine research and COVID-19 therapeutics.
Since then, filings have returned to a more typical pattern. In 2024, Swiss EPO applications in pharmaceuticals fell by 13.2 percent compared with 2023, while medical technology declined by 3 percent. Growth instead came from electrical machinery, up 8.9 percent, biotechnology up 5.4 percent and transport technologies up 3.5 percent.
Europe shows a similar trajectory. Over the past two decades, medical-technology filings at the EPO have nearly tripled, whereas pharmaceuticals and biotech have expanded far more slowly.

A biotech nation with predominantly foreign-held IP

Switzerland’s biotech footprint is substantial. Yet much of the underlying intellectual property originates abroad. The Swiss Biotech Report 2024 counts 21’651 active biotech patent families in force domestically, but only 8’701 are of Swiss origin. Roughly 88 percent of biotech patents validated in Switzerland belong to foreign entities.
Domestic innovation has nevertheless grown. Earlier analyses estimated about 3’900 Swiss-origin biotech patent families in 2017, around 5.9 percent of all Swiss patent families at the time.
The overall patent stock is large. The IPI registered 151’137 patents in force in Switzerland at the end of 2022. Of these, 145’587 were validated European patents and 5’550 were national patents. Switzerland acts simultaneously as an R&D hub and a preferred validation jurisdiction for global biotech portfolios.

Economic weight far greater than patent share

Measured by economic impact, pharma remains one of the pillars of Switzerland’s economy. A 2024 study by BAK Economics for Interpharma shows that nearly one franc in ten of GDP is generated along pharma’s value chains. The industry’s real output has tripled over the past decade and contributed more than 40 percent of national economic growth during that period.
R&D expenditure underlines this significance. According to the Federal Statistical Office, companies invested almost CHF 17 billion in research and development in 2021; the pharmaceutical sector alone accounted for CHF 6.2 billion, roughly one third of private-sector R&D spending.
The export balance tells the same story. Chemicals and pharmaceuticals consistently represent around half of Switzerland’s goods exports, with annual values exceeding CHF 100 billion. If patent shares alone were used as an indicator, pharma’s economic weight would be significantly understated.

Germany and France offer a useful benchmark

In absolute terms, Switzerland ranks just behind Europe’s largest economies in patent filings. German applicants submitted around 25’000 EPO applications in 2024, and French applicants just under 11’000. Switzerland’s 9’966 filings put it close to France despite its far smaller population.
On a per-capita basis, Switzerland stands in a category of its own. With 1’140 applications per million inhabitants, the country far outpaces Germany’s roughly 300 and France’s 160 to 170.
Industrial structure explains part of the divergence. Germany’s patent activity is dominated by mechanical engineering, automotive technologies, electrical machinery and energy systems. France shows strong concentrations in aerospace, energy and chemicals. Both countries host major pharmaceutical groups such as Bayer, Merck KGaA, Boehringer Ingelheim and Sanofi, but life sciences represent only one slice of their overall innovation output.
Switzerland’s economy, by contrast, is deeply anchored in life sciences while its patenting activity is more diversified.

Corporate strategies shape observed patent volumes

Large Swiss companies maintain extensive global IP portfolios. In the EPO statistics for 2024, Roche appears as Switzerland’s largest applicant and ranks among Europe’s most active corporate filers.
Patent analytics estimate that Roche holds around 7’959 patent families and more than 80’000 granted patents worldwide for the period 2009 to 2023, including more than 10’000 European patents. Novartis discloses similarly broad patent estates in its annual reports, covering innovative medicines, biologics and platform technologies.
Much of this IP is filed through international subsidiaries, reflecting global R&D structures. National statistics therefore capture only part of the innovation output generated in Switzerland.

Underlying Drivers of the Patent Mix

Several structural shifts help explain why pharmaceutical patenting grows more slowly than other fields.

• First, modern medicines, especially biologics, tend to rely on fewer but broader patent families. OECD analyses show that rising R&D expenditure in pharma is accompanied by comparatively modest growth in patent counts.
• Second, health innovation has increasingly shifted toward devices, diagnostics, software and data platforms. Over two decades, EPO filings in medical technology have expanded far more rapidly than those in pharmaceuticals.
• Third, Swiss biotech is deeply internationalised. With 88 percent of active biotech patents in force held by foreign companies, Switzerland’s role as a validation market weakens the direct link between domestic research and domestic patent filings.
  Fourth, pricing pressure and the high cost of drug development, often exceeding CHF 2 billion per new medicine, encourage companies to prioritise strong, defensible patents over filing volume.

These factors help to explain the evolution of the data without diminishing the scientific or economic relevance of the sector.

Continued Strength with Changing Areas of Focus

Swiss patenting as a whole remains exceptionally strong, and the country continues to lead the world on a per-capita basis. Pharmaceuticals and biotech retain their importance, but they are no longer the principal sources of momentum in the statistics. Their share of EPO filings is stable to declining, and the latest figures show a marked retreat from the pandemic-driven peak. The pace of innovation growth has shifted toward medtech, electronics and measurement technologies.
For Switzerland, the implications are twofold. Pharma remains one of the country’s most productive and internationally competitive industries, central to GDP, exports and R&D. At the same time, innovation is becoming more interdisciplinary and increasingly shaped by data-driven technologies. The challenge will be to maintain Switzerland’s position as a global R&D hub as the boundaries between pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medtech and digital health continue to evolve.