Macrogen Europe is set to move into the Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area at Novartis Campus. As with its parent company, the South Korean biotechnology firm Macrogen Inc., the European subsidiary specializes as a service provider in the area of Sanger sequencing for genome research activities.
Macrogen Europe is seeking to expand within Switzerland from its foothold in Basel with its Sanger sequencing laboratory. To this end, the company, whose European headquarters are located in Amsterdam, with primary headquarters in the South Korean capital Seoul, has chosen the Novartis Campus site of the Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area. The Swiss Business Hub Korea, which represents the official Swiss consultancy, promotion and platform organization for export and investment promotion, Switzerland Global Enterprise, in Seoul, initiated the first contact with the investment and innovation promotion agency Basel Area Business & Innovation.
This year, Macrogen Europe was named Top Sanger Sequencing Services Company 2023 by the North American biotech magazine “Life Sciences Review”. Since 2008, Macrogen Europe has been focused on supporting genomics researchers in Europe and Africa. With its Sanger and Next Generation sequencing laboratories, the company claims to be able to ensure fast turnaround times.
“Our powerful sequencing services are designed to take up as little research time as possible, because project delays are simply not an option for us”, comments Bongcho Kim, CEO of Macrogen Europe, before adding: “Our plan for Basel is to expand within Switzerland with our in-house laboratory sequencing”.
Initially, the company intends to move closer to its customers with two employees in Basel. Thereafter, the plan is to gradually increase the local workforce to between five and ten staff members at a physical lab in Switzerland. In terms of the reasoning behind choosing Basel, Macrogen cites the appeal of the existing life sciences cluster and central location on the border with Germany and France.
For Prof. Jeong-Sun Seo, location is a top priority. The distinguished scientist founded Macrogen in Seoul in 1997 and developed the company to become Korea’s market leader in genotyping.
With his foresight, he expanded the company’s footprint and established European sites starting in 2008 in the Netherlands and later in Italy and France. Meanwhile, Jeong-Sun Seo is the company’s chairman and continues to play an active part in shaping its destiny. That’s why he visited Switzerland in 2022 to explore new opportunities for Macrogen.
After visiting different Swiss business hubs, he chose the Basel Area as the new location for Macrogen in Europe. The company has established its presence at the Switzerland Innovation Park Basel Area Novartis Campus. Macrogen Europe plans to initially deploy two employees in Basel, gradually increasing up to ten staff members.
For Macrogen, Basel’s vibrant life sciences cluster and strategic location on the border with Germany and France made settling here the logical choice.