Fighting Covid-19 together

2. Pooling expertise and resources

Switzerland’s research-based pharmaceutical companies are also actively participating in the effort to combat Covid-19 and are involved in numerous international projects and coopera- tive ventures. Right at the start of the pandemic, for example, many members of Interpharma joined with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish a consortium, co-chaired by Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan and Bill Gates, with the aim of When will pharma research come up with an effective medicine or vaccine against Covid-19? pooling their expertise and resources and accelerating the development and production of vaccines, diagnostics and medicines. In the field of diagnostics, Roche was one of the first companies to make a highly automated coronavirus test available as early as mid-March, which allows up to 4000 samples to be tested for the SARS-CoV-2 virus within 24 hours. In May, Roche was granted US approval for an antibody test and rapidly stepped up production capacity to many tens of millions of units in order to supply healthcare systems worldwide.