Master in Life Sciences - Pharmatechnology, FHNW School of Life Sciences

With a specialisation in Pharmatechnology, you are well positioned for a career in the pharmaceutical or biomedical industries. The demand for safe and effective medicines is constantly growing, offering long‑term career prospects in a global sector. Your expertise is sought by major corporations such as Roche and Novartis, medium‑sized companies, and specialised service providers. Opportunities also exist in pharmaceutical engineering, consulting and regulatory authorities.

Typical areas of employment for graduates include:

• Contract research and manufacturing companies (CROs/CMOs): Planning and execution of pharmaceutical projects.
• Pharmaceutical engineering: Conception and optimisation of technical processes and production facilities.
• Consulting firms in the Life Sciences sector: Strategic and regulatory advice.
• Regulatory authorities: Evaluation and approval of drugs and medical devices.
• Medium-sized pharmaceutical companies: Development of innovative niche products and technologies.

The programme provides a rigorous, practice‑oriented education aligned with the current and future needs of the pharmaceutical industry.

You will gain expertise in the following areas:

• Formulation and administration of medicines: Development of suitable pharmaceutical forms and their production on lab and industrial scales.
• Formulation of biologics: Specialised training in developing and stabilising biological agents.
• Continuous pharmaceutical production: An entire module is dedicated to the modern focus on this technique.
• Pharmaceutical production facilities: Planning and technical implementation of production facilities for medicine manufacture.
• Elective modules from related fields: Opportunities for specialisation in Analytical Chemistry, Applied Cell Biology, Biotechnology and Bioanalytics.

In addition to the wide range of subject-specific modules, the interdisciplinary modules allow you to put together your own individual study programme. This will help you strengthen your skills in:

• Management and leadership: Business administration and leadership in Life Sciences.
• Innovation and project management
• Data analysis and visualisation: Modern techniques for planning and analysing experiments and modelling multivariate data.

A total of 50 ECTS credits (i.e. 17 modules each worth 3 ECTS credits) must be earned. Other modules can be selected: Module overview (English)

You can also plan your studies in advance with our MSc Life Sciences planning tool.

Direct admission requires:

• a Bachelor’s degree in a related field from a university of applied sciences or university with a good grade (Switzerland: A, B or ≥ 5; Germany/Austria: at least “good”),

• sufficient English proficiency.

If you do not fully meet the requirements, you may be invited to a personal interview.

Proof of sufficient English skills must be provided with one of the following certificates:

If you are unable to provide evidence of the required command of English, you are obliged to improve it during the course of your master’s degree programme. You can either attend the advanced English course offered by the FHNW School of Life Sciences or other suitable language courses. At the end of the programme, proof must be provided that the required level of English has been achieved (see table above).