Entrepreneur Of The Year Winner 2007 Switzerland

The 2007 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year winner from Switzerland was announced in a ceremony held in Lucerne on 5 October 2007.

Dr Jean-Paul Clozel, CEO, Member of the Board and co-founder of Actelion Pharmaceuticals Ltd, was praised by the judges for his tremendous achievement in creating a global player in the field of life sciences from just a handful of enthusiastic scientists in only 10 years.

Actelion was founded in 1997 with the goal of exploiting the potential of the endothelium — the thin layer of cells that line the inner surface of blood vessels — for therapeutic use. Only four years later, Actelion launched its first product onto the market — a drug which very quickly established itself as a treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension. Since then, more drugs have followed and Actelion has more in the pipeline. Under Dr Clozel’s management, it has, in just 10 years, become an international company with 1,600 employees, branches in 20 countries and market capitalization of €3,759billion.

“Actelion’s success could not have been achieved alone, and so this award belongs to all the founders and, of course, to all the teams we have in positions of responsibility today,” said Dr Jean-Paul Clozel.

The independent Swiss Entrepreneur Of The Year judging panel said, “Actelion combines the extremely successful spirit of a young company with the quality demands of Big Pharma. Along with research into and development of new drugs, Actelion makes an effective contribution to raising awareness of their field of treatment. Thousands of patients worldwide have benefited as result, including some who had been wrongly diagnosed but are now finally able to receive appropriate treatment.”

On 31 May 2008 Dr. Jean-Paul Clozel will join the 2007 Entrepreneur Of The Year country winners from more than 40 countries around the world in Monte Carlo to be inducted into the World Entrepreneur Of The Year Academy and vie for the title of Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year.

Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Of The Year competition aims to recognize and encourage entrepreneurship around the world, and build a forum for the exchange of ideas not just between entrepreneurs of one country, but also internationally.