• a solid armature of basic research (ULP and ESBS in particular)
• an active collaboration with world famous laboratories based in the region (ISIS)
• major presence of foreign investors
• an export mentality (around 50%)
• interaction with other businesses (particularly in plasturgy with automobile specialisms)

• Lilly France (USA) : medication (the top regional employer in pharmaceuticals)
• Octapharma (Switzerland): blood derivatives
• Prestwick Chemical (France): custom solutions in pharmacochemistry
• CareX (France): medicines - metabolic disorders
• Bayer Elastomères (Germany): synthetic rubber
• Johnson Controls (USA) : foam for car seats
• Omegal (Neyr group, France) : plastic sub-units
• Cosmeurop (Clarins, group, France) : cosmetics
• Boiron (France) : homeopathic medicines

The modernisation of the Bayer Elastomères, site in La Wantzenau translated into an investment of 30 million euros.

Lilly France invested 150 million euros in the growth of its production capacity for human insulin,anticarcinogens and growth hormones. Its production site in Fegersheim has therefore become the largest in the group. An additional 280 million euros will be invested by the company between now and 2009 with a view to doubling its production capacity of therapeutic units in lyophilised form and strengthening its logistical hub.

The Swiss company, Octapharma has devoted 25 million euros to set up a logistics centre in Holtzheim to support the business at its Lingolsheim site.

The first document found in Strasbourg providing evidence of a specific study in chemistry dates back to 1500. It is a work devoted to distillation, produced by a local surgeon, Hieronymus Brunschwig. A hundred years later, this technique would turn out to be a vital component in the chemistry of mineral acids. It was in a pharmacy in Strasbourg, the Pharmacie du Cerf, opposite the cathedral, that, three hundred years later, Emmanuel Merck completed his training before going on to found the renowned company that we know today. In more recent times, Louis Pasteur taught in Strasbourg for six years in both disciplines, chemistry and pharmacy. His successor to the University chair of chemistry was Charles Frédéric Gerhardt, who was the first person to produce a stable synthetic form of acetylsalicyclic acid. Extracted from the bark of the white willow, this compound became famous fifty years later, when the Bayer laboratory patented the brand name Aspirin in 1899. Even more recently, Professor Jean-Marie Lehn was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1987.