Swiss newspaper challenges drug advertising allegations

NZZ defends itself in court against cancellation orders from Swissmedic Keystone-SDA

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ) is taking legal action against the Agency for Therapeutic Products, Swissmedic. The authority had ordered the deletion of several editorial articles because they were classified as unauthorised advertising for prescription-only medicines.

+ Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

Two cases are currently pending before the courts, as a spokeswoman for the NZZ confirmed on Friday in response to an enquiry from the Keystone-SDA news agency.

In the case of a journalist’s first-person reportage on migraines, the Federal Administrative Court has upheld Swissmedic’s ruling. In May 2025, the court ruled that the article created a promotional impression and was one-sided. The NZZ appealed this decision to the Federal Supreme Court.

+ Swiss regulator and media clash over weight-loss drugs

Swissmedic also demanded that the NZZ delete several publications in connection with reports on weight-loss injections. According to information from CH Media, this involves a video, a series on a weight loss self-experiment and two journalistic texts. The media company is also defending itself against this order before the Federal Administrative Court.

Drug ordinance against freedom of the press

Swissmedic justified its action to CH Media with its legal mandate. “Advertising reporting can lead to patients putting pressure on doctors to prescribe a certain preparation,” a spokeswoman said. However, objective reporting on medicines is still possible.

The NZZ takes a different view. The newspaper told CH Media that the strict advertising ban threatens the freedom of the press. The possibilities of being able to report freely on medical developments are severely restricted as a result.

The Federal Court has not yet dealt with this issue. The judgement would also have an impact on the appeal to the Federal Administrative Court.

Translated from German by AI/jdp

How we work

We select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools to translate them into English. A journalist then reviews the translation for clarity and accuracy before publication.  

Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles. The news stories we select have been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team from news agencies such as Bloomberg or Keystone.

If you have any questions about how we work, write to us at [e-mail].