scienceindustries has been founded in 1882 in Zurich as the "Swiss Society of Chemical Industries", the umbrella organisation of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, handling topics of economic policy. Its objective is to promote and protect the interests of the chemical industry; it represents the industry towards the public, governmental authorities and international organisations. At present (2011), the society counts some 250 member companies.

scienceindustries is legally constituted as an association with a general assembly and a Board of Directors. The Society maintains a permanent office in Zurich since 1945. It runs the business along the principles of a flexible issue management, assigning the resources timely to issues according to priorities set by the Board. All members have electronic access to the comprehensive status of affairs via the membernet, enabling them to contribute to the further direction of work at any time.

In view of the industry's heavy dependency on foreign trade, it is hardly surprising that for a long time, the main activities were in the field of trade policy. Over the years, the range of issues has broadened. In particular the topics of environment, biotechnology and the pharmaceuticals sector have assumed increasing importance. Since the beginning the society evaluates and comments the industry's position towards Swiss draft legislation.

Since its foundation, scienceindustries has been promoting an industry friendly regulatory environment for its activities, both in Switzerland and abroad. The objectives in the field of foreign trade are:

• Creation of liberal, stable and sustainable basic conditions for the world economy, e.g. within the framework of the WTO and the European Union.


• The removal of technical trade barriers through international harmonisation of trade relevant legal provisions in different countries, or via the mutual recognition of such provisions 


• Securing an appropriate compensation of corporate research efforts, among others through internationally improved protection of intellectual property.

scienceindustries is committed to close collaboration with similar organisations of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries in other countries; it is an active member of a large number of industry associations, active in Europe as well as internationally.