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FOPH: Strengthening the supply of essential medicines

17 September 2026

FOPH: Strengthening the supply of essential medicines

In a speech at the "Dialog Grundversorgung Schweiz" event, Anne Lévy, Director of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), addressed federal measures to strengthen the supply of essential medicines. She noted that shortages, as reflected on the "drugshortage.ch" platform, particularly affect everyday, off-patent medicines such as antibiotics, painkillers, and treatments for Parkinson's disease or epilepsy, with causes rooted in global supply-chain dependencies. Short-term measures include allowing foreign-approved packaging in Switzerland and replacing printed package leaflets with QR codes, while a differentiated cost-effectiveness review would exempt low-turnover, low-price products from routine triennial reviews. In the longer term, the Federal Government seeks to broaden its constitutional powers through its direct counter-proposal to the popular initiative "Ja zur medizinischen Versorgungssicherheit”, which is currently pending before Parliament, with a view to establishing a legal basis for enhanced supply monitoring and targeted intervention measures.

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