Pharma groups have held back from submitting around a third of their new medicines for reimbursement in Switzerland, impinging patient access to new therapies.
That is the finding of a survey by Swiss pharma trade body Interpharma, which links the fall directly to the Trump administration's Most Favoured Nation (MFN) pricing policy, which sets the price that drugmakers can set for new medicines in the US at the same level as the lowest offered in 'comparable' countries.
The anonymous poll of Interpharma member companies suggests that Switzerland – which has been named as one of the reference countries for MFN calculations – is already feeling the effects of the new policy, with companies holding off on the launch of drugs in some markets to avoid skewing the MFN price that will apply in the US.
That ties in with an analysis published by EU pharma organisation EFPIA in May, which found that the time between the approval of new medicines in Europe and their availability to patients, which has been rising in recent years, seems to be gathering pace.
Interpharma data from Switzerland between 2021 and 2024 has already pointed to declining access to innovative medicines. Compared to Germany, only about half of new therapies approved during that period are currently available to patients in Switzerland via the Federal Office of Public Health's Specialties List, which covers drugs that are mandatorily covered by compulsory basic health insurance.
Between January 2025 and June 2026, Interpharma members declined to submit seven of a total of 22 new innovative medicines for reimbursement by Swiss health insurers, due to the MFN regime, according to the report. Moreover, in three cases, the new drugs were not even submitted for approval by the Swissmedic regulatory authority.
"As a result, patients in Switzerland do not have access to around a third of all newly developed, innovative medicines through compulsory health insurance, raising the prospect of a two-tiered healthcare system," said Interpharma in a statement on the finding.
"With this, any speculation about the effects of the MFN regime comes to an end: its impact is already measurable and poses a serious threat to equal access to innovative medicines in Switzerland," it added. "As a reference country for the US with comparatively low purchasing-power-adjusted prices for innovative medicines, Switzerland is particularly exposed."
Another analysis published by EFPIA earlier this year, looking at new drug approvals in the previous 18 months, suggested a decline in the number of FDA-approved medicines that are subsequently cleared by the EMA.
https://pharmaphorum.com/news/mfn-affecting-swiss-medicines-access-says-interpharma
