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Baselland Business 1/2022 English

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Business guide for the Basel-Landschaft region in German and English

Interview Thomas Meier

Interview Thomas Meier “Highest quality is a must” With around 1500 employees and annual sales of over 400 million Swiss francs, Bachem in Bubendorf is one of the most important and innovative companies in the canton of Basel-Landschaft. CEO Thomas Meier, with Bachem since 1993 and at the operational top management since 2020, in an interview. Interview: Daniel Schaub years of Bachem. Where do you want to take the journey? For the next ten years at least, we have a clear roadmap. In addition to peptides, we now also have oligonucleotides in our portfolio, both of which are in great demand, and there are many development projects in the pharmaceutical industry that are based on such molecules. If Mr. Meier, Bachem celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2021. The story sounds like a fairy tale – from a one-man operation, rented in a carpenter’s workshop, to a world-leading center of excellence for the production of complex active pharmaceutical ingredients, as you recently called the company. How was such a development possible? Thomas Meier: Of course, the first thing to mention here is the entrepreneurial skill of our founder Peter Grogg. He had the foresight to see that there would be a growing need for the production of peptides, which are complex molecules that are increasingly in demand in the pharmaceutical industry. Bachem has always been characterized by a high level of specialization and product quality. Added to this are a strong team spirit and a long-term mindset. You also see this half century as a mission for the next 50 18 Baselland Business

About the person Our goal is to continue to grow profitably. We will certainly be larger as a company in five years’ time, but we will still maintain our successful corporate culture ambitions. Thomas Meier was born in Schaffhausen in 1968. He completed an apprenticeship as a chemical laboratory technician at the ETH in Zurich, followed by studies to become a graduate chemist FH at the University of Applied Sciences Winterthur. In 1993, he joined Bachem as group leader for active ingredients. From 2001 to 2004, Thomas Meier led the peptide team at Peninsula Laboratories in San Carlos, California. After returning to Switzerland, he managed Bachem’s solid-phase peptide production in Bubendorf. In 2013, he took over the overall management of production at the Bubendorf site and became Chief Operations Officer (COO) Europe in August 2017, responsible for all production sites in Switzerland, Germany and the UK. Thomas Meier has a part-time degree in industrial engineering STV and completed the Advanced Management Program at INSEAD Business School in Fontainebleau/Paris. In 2019, he became a member of the Executive Committee as Chief Operations Officer (COO), replacing Thomas Früh as CEO as of January 1, 2020. everything goes well, we can double sales in the next five years. Bachem has invested around 150 million Swiss francs in the past five years and plans to invest further in expansion over the next five years. These sound like very ambitious goals. The largest and most modern building for the production of peptides and oligonucleotides worldwide is currently being constructed at the main site in Bubendorf. After the ground-breaking ceremony last November, commissioning is planned for 2024. The new building will significantly expand our capacity in Bubendorf and is important for achieving our growth targets. At the same time, we have embarked on a search for another site in Switzerland as we expect further long-term growth. The new site is expected to be operational by the end of the decade. The land reserves in Bubendorf will then be exhausted. The laying of the foundation stone last November coincided with Future Day, when the company invites young people to join them. No coincidence, is it? We hadn’t planned it so explicitly, but of course it’s a nice sign. We thrive on getting people excited about what can be achieved with chemistry. To do that, we always need new talent. In this context, how do you rate the vocational training on offer in the region? Northwestern Switzerland is a genuine life sciences cluster, which also includes vocational training. Vocational training plays a very important role at Bachem; we often hire our apprentices directly. Baselland Business 19

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