People walk along the bridge over the Rhine, after leaving Novatis Campus, headquarters to the phramaceutical giant,  a gated village within the city, including buildings by star architects. The company also occupies the building visible which is on the far side of the river.<br />
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Basel, straddling the Rhine, and bordering both Germany and France, is a global centre for the pharmaceutical  industry – ‘big pharma’, with hundreds of biotech and ‘life sciences’ companies ranging from start-ups to two of the top five global companies: Novatis and Hoffmann La Roche.<br />
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The industry provides roughly 40% of total Swiss exports. The chemical and pharmaceutical industry currently employs around 65,000 people in Switzerland and over 355,000 internationally.