A panel of experts recommended to stop the sale of big packages of medicines if the original packs are no longer available, according to the Federal Office for National Economic Supply.
The move is aimed at reducing a waste of drugs and allow products to be sold to more patients during the current supply disruption, it said on Wednesday.
However, patients must continue to receive the amount of medication necessary for a successful therapy. And they must continue to be given the original package insert, the experts said.
The latest measure is limited in time and will only be maintained until the supply situation for the active substances concerned has stabilised.
Short-term
Pharmacist Enea Martinelli described the recommendation as a short-term measure that can only bring partial relief. Martinelli has repeatedly warned of supply bottlenecks over the past few years.
Also on Wednesday, the Federal Office of Public Health announced a series of measures to relieve the supply shortage, notably the reimbursement by health insurers for certain medicines produced by pharmacies.
The office said it has suspended plans to lower prices for vital and inexpensive medicines such as antibiotics “in justified cases” and increase prices instead.
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Switzerland takes more steps to relieve antibiotics shortage
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The Swiss government is to free up compulsory stocks of oral antibiotics as of March 1, in response to an acute shortage of some drugs.
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