Piyush Goyal, the Commerce and Industry Minister, met Helene Budliger Artieda, the visiting Swiss State Secretary for Economic Affairs, and discussed cooperation when it comes to research and development as well as pharma and biotech collaboration with a view to expanding investment opportunities for the Swiss pharmaceutical companies in the growing healthcare sector of India.
It is well to be noted that Artieda is on a visit to India with a delegation of Swiss pharma and biotech firms. Goyal on X confirmed that he co-chaired a meeting with Ms. Helene Budliger Artieda as well as Swiss pharma and biotech companies. As per his post, the discussions focused on avenues of more cooperation in R&D and also expanding investment opportunities for the Swiss pharma and biotech companies to make utmost use of the robust healthcare sector of India.
He also added that both sides discussed the growth made under the India-EFTA Trade & Economic Partnership Agreement – TEPA with the objective to further elevate the collaboration throughout the major sectors for mutual growth.
Notably, with the India-EFTA TEPA talks taking shape and showing progress, both countries are looking forward to ways to boost trade as well as encourage innovation-driven investments, with the first step being pharma and biotech collaboration which can make the healthcare delivery and manufacturing capacities more robust. In order to boost the pharma exports, Goyal held an interaction along with major stakeholders from the pharmaceutical ecosystem of India recently, stressing the strengthening of industry growth as well as regulatory reforms.
In a social media post on November 24, 2025, the minister said that he had an engaging discussion along with the industry representatives, and these discussions aimed at enhancing the position of India in the global pharma spectrum. He said that he had an engaging interaction along with key stakeholders from the pharma ecosystem in India, focusing on making the regulatory frameworks stronger and also speeding up the growth.
He added they discussed industry viewpoints on innovation, investment commitments, data protection frameworks, and also opportunities so as to scale the manufacturing in India. The meeting underscores the focus of India on building robust collaborations with global players across the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors. Goyal went on to reiterate the commitment made by the Modi Government so as to develop an innovation-led and future-ready pharma sector that is capable of boosting competitiveness and at the same time also attracting high-quality investments. He further added that the government does remain committed and focused when it comes to delivering healthcare solutions that are affordable and of course world-class.
