The Health Valley covers the Western Switzerland region, where the life sciences sector extends from Geneva to Bern, including the seven French-speaking cantons of Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Jura, Neuchatel, Valais and Vaud. This world-class cluster presents a critical mass of 1,000 companies, research centers and innovation support structures, representing today more than 25,000 employees. The Health Valley strives to animate the life sciences ecosystem of the region, by establishing thriving bridges between its ambassadors. The name of the Health Valley is inspired by that of Silicon Valley in California, United States. According to Swiss newspaperLe Temps, there were close to 1,000 biotech and medtech companies in the Health Valley in 2017, employing 25,000 people. The Health Valley network is led by the swiss charity , which president, is actively engaged in the development of the life sciences in the region. He has created and continue to actively promote the Health Valley concept through BioAlps, Eclosion and Campus Biotech. The Health Valley is today supported by 70 ambassadors which intends to foster synergies in order to create value for the region. The ambassadors of the Health Valley for the 2016-2018 period are A3P Suisse - Abionic - AC Immune - ALRO Engineering SA - Altran - Anecova - Bachem - Banque Cantonale du Valais - BioAlps - Biopôle - Bracco - Campus Biotech - Celgene - CHUV - Clinique de la Source - Clinique Romande de réadaptation - Covance - CSEM - CSL Behring - Debiopharm - Eli Lilly - EPFL - Espace Création - EspeRare - Etat de Neuchâtel - EY - Ferring Pharmaceuticals - Gevers - GGBa - Glenmark Pharmaceuticals - HUG - IBM - IE Life Science Engineering - Inartis Network - Incyte - Innovaud - Institut de recherche en réadaptation-réinsertion – Iqone Healthcare - Katzarov - Kessler - Lausanne Region - Lonza - MayBa.ch - MedC. Partners - Medical Cluster - Merck - NV Logistics - Promotion économique du Canton de Berne - Regen Lab - Salon EPHJ-EPMT-SMT - SICHH - Socar Research - Socorex - Sophia Genetics - Sunstar - Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics - Symbios - Symetis - Tavernier Tschanz - The Ark - - UCB - UniverCité - Université de Genève - Université de Lausanne - Valsynthèse - Voisin Life Sciences Consulting and Wyss Center. A digital interactive map of all the regional actors is located at . According to Swiss journalist, the idea of a Health Valley was actively supported by Patrick Aebischer during his tenure as president of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne/EPFL. Notably, Aebischer promoted teaching and research in the life sciences while deepening cooperation with Lausanne University Hospital/CHUV. Biotech expert Jürg Zürcher argues that Switzerland as a whole constitutes a cluster, with the BaselBioValley employing 50,000 people and the Zurich region employing 21,000. "Together, these three regions form the densest network of biotech firms anywhere in the world", Swiss Info notes, with over 40% of the world's pharmaceutical companies in the Basel region alone. Foreign competing clusters include the Oxford-Cambridge-London cluster in the United Kingdom, the Boston, San Francisco and San Diego clusters in the United States, as well as emerging ones in India and China.
