Swiss pharma giant Novartis and its generic spin off Sandoz are considered the largest foreign investors in Slovenia. A large share of their investment has gone into R&D facilities. Sandoz invested over 80 million euros (90 million US dollars) in its Slovenian lab to develop biosimilars. Novartis built a large cell and gene therapy R&D lab in Mengeš near Ljubljana. In short, for the Swiss drug companies Slovenia has become the center of excellence for complex biologics, one of the crucial areas in modern medicine.

Novartis and Sandoz take advantage of Slovenia’s high levels of education, engineering skills, and well-developed scientific research infrastructure. In this respect, Swiss pharma companies are not an exception. Small home appliances by Bosch Siemens are developed in the Slovenian town of Nazarje. Gorenje in nearby Velenje is a global R&D center for dishwashers and cooking appliances within the Chinese Hisense group. Hella Saturnus, a Slovenian subsidiary of Forvia Hella automotive electronics supplier, runs three of the group's key development centers. Japanese owned paint and coating maker Helios Tblus has one of the world’s best equipped labs in biodegradable coatings and additives which employs over 100 researchers. The only factory of the leading sanitary systems producer Geberit outside of Switzerland with its own R&D is situated in Slovenia. These are just a few examples that indirectly demonstrate the increasing significance of knowledge among Slovenia’s leading export products.