Key facts
- Drugmakers are withholding applications for Swiss health insurance coverage.
- This is driven by concerns that lower Swiss prices could negatively impact U.S. pricing strategies.
- The U.S. most-favoured-nation drug-pricing policy is a key factor.
- Approximately one-third of new innovative drugs were not submitted for Swiss reimbursement between January 2025 and June 2026.
- Three other new drugs were not submitted for Swiss market approval at all.
- Interpharma's survey indicates a reluctance to launch new therapies in Switzerland due to potential U.S. price implications.
Drugmakers are increasingly hesitant to seek health insurance coverage in Switzerland for new innovative medicines, fearing that lower prices in the Swiss market could undermine their pricing strategies in the United States. A survey by the Swiss pharmaceutical industry group Interpharma revealed that approximately one-third of new innovative drugs were not submitted for reimbursement in Switzerland between January 2025 and June 2026. Furthermore, three other new drugs were not submitted for Swiss market approval at all, a decision also attributed to the U.S. policy.
The U.S. introduced its so-called most-favoured-nation drug-pricing policy to lower domestic medicine costs by benchmarking them against prices in other countries. This policy has created a disincentive for some drugmakers to launch new medicines in Europe promptly, as it could negatively impact U.S. pricing.
Interpharma stated that drugmakers no longer feel they can launch new therapies in Switzerland in a timely manner under current conditions without jeopardizing prices in the United States. The survey indicated that only 15 medicines were submitted for reimbursement during the period, compared to an average of 24 submissions over similar 18-month periods between 2019 and 2025. Consequently, Swiss patients may have limited access to about one-third of newly developed innovative medicines through mandatory health insurance, a trend exacerbated by the U.S. policy.