HeiQ, a Swiss company founded in 2005 for scientific research, production of specialty materials and branding of ingredients for consumer products, has won the first prize of the Swiss Technology Award 2020 for its antiviral textile technology HeiQ Viroblock. The technology offers durable surface protection against viruses including SARS-CoV-2, sanitization and disinfection for porous surfaces such as textiles. It was developed in record time and launched on March 16, two hours after Switzerland declared a state of emergency and announced the first Covid-19-related lockdown. Since then, HeiQ Viroblock has been used by more than 150 brands worldwide on over 1 billion products ranging from face masks and apparel to home textiles, mattresses and curtains. HeiQ is a spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and has subsidiaries in Australia, China, Portugal, Taiwan and the USA.