Swiss medicine revenues pegged back by price reductions

Medicines: sales increase by 5% in Switzerland in 2025 Keystone-SDA

The Swiss domestic pharmaceutical market recorded a 5% increase in revenues of CHF8.1 billion at factory prices, last year.

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Turnover expansion was held back 2.4% by price reductions enforced by the government, reported trade association Interpharma.

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Of the total amount, almost CHF7.1 billion was paid by health insurance companies. The main driver of the growth in volumes was demographic developments and the resulting increase in demand for medical services.

Interpharma emphasises that the 2.4% dampening effect, resulting from cuts by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH), accounted for the entire cost of introducing new drugs and extending existing approvals.

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Last year, the FOPH reduced the prices of almost 300 medicines by an average of 12%.

Meanwhile, the rise of equivalent medicines continues. Generics sales rose to CHF1.1 billion (+6.4%), exceeding the CHF1bn mark for a syecond year running. Even more pronounced was the growth of biosimilars, whose turnover rose by 13.7% to CHF255 million.

This above-average growth came at the expense of original products: sales of chemical preparations fell by 1.2%, while those of biologics declined by 7.8%. New innovative therapies in the market reimbursed by health insurers rose by only 4.6%, a performance deemed unsatisfactory by the association.

The “one-sided focus on costs” is increasingly jeopardising the supply of medicines, stated Interpharma.

The association said that innovative preparations improve quality of life and prevent more expensive surgery or hospitalisation costs.

Adapted from Italian by AI/mga

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