Prices of certain cheap medicine to rise sharply in Switzerland
The price of a box of 20 Ibuprofen 400mg tablets has doubled from CHF5.90 to CHF10.95.
Keystone / Christian Beutler
Consumers in Switzerland face higher prices for certain common medicine following a reform of the pricing system that came into force on July 1. Ibuprofen, for example, is doubling in price.
This content was published on
2 minutes
RTS
This increase is the result of a change in the way the price of medicine is calculated, which was agreed by the government last year. Under the new system, the manufacturing cost remains the same, but the distribution margin has increased significantly. Value Added Tax has also risen slightly.
“This new, relatively complicated system mainly affects low-cost medicines, whose prices are rising,” says Yannis Papadaniel, who heads the consumer federation for French-speaking Switzerland. For example, the price of a box of 20 400mg tablets Ibuprofen has doubled from CHF5.90 ($6.50) to CHF10.95.
And while prices for more expensive drugs are tending to fall, Papadaniel argues “this new pricing system is still rather problematic, since we are in a context of inflation”.
Patients will bear the brunt of this reform because “from the moment the medicine is prescribed, there is no way of avoiding the price increase,” he added.
Translated from French by DeepL/jdp
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
External Content
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Almost finished… We need to confirm your email address. To complete the subscription process, please click the link in the email we just sent you.
Popular Stories
More
Life & Aging
Zurich: how the world capital of housing shortages is tackling the problem
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
In Switzerland more people are being referred to electrical therapies or psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. Are there similar approaches where you live?
Pope was a person full of respect: Swiss president
This content was published on
Swiss president Karin Keller-Sutter, who is attending the funeral of Pope Francis, says the pontiff was always full of respect.
Ex-sect member sentenced in Zurich for sexual abuse
This content was published on
Zurich District Court has sentenced a former member of the globally active sect "Children of God" to a partial prison sentence.
SNB chairman does not rule out slowdown in Swiss growth
This content was published on
Martin Schlegel, chairman of the Swiss National Bank (SNB), does not rule out a weakening of the Swiss economy in light of the tariff dispute.
Swiss NGOs abroad to receive 10% less federal funding
This content was published on
In 2025 and 2026, Swiss NGOs will have 10% less federal funding available for international cooperation than in the previous two-year period.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.