The Swiss voice in the world since 1935
Top stories
Stay in touch with Switzerland

Talks between pharma and Swiss government stall

Talks between pharma and government stall
Talks between pharma and government stall Keystone-SDA

Discussions between pharma industry representatives and the Swiss government failed on Monday evening to produce a clear solution to the US customs policy.

Economics Minister Guy Parmelin spoke of constructive discussions, but did not offer any concrete suggestions.

+Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox

“We have agreed to continue this discussion rapidly and to repeat the exercise at a later date,” said Parmelin at the end of a round-table discussion with representatives of pharma, the cantons and the Federal Council (Switzerland’s executive body).

Despite the “positive” discussions, the minister made no secret of the difficulties facing the sector. US President Donald Trump has given the industry until the end of September to lower the price of exported Swiss medicines, failing which pharma, which is currently exempt from customs duties, risks being taxed.

Asked about a possible increase in the price of medicines in Switzerland, Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider replied that this was not the issue, but rather how to act within the framework of the law.

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 english@swissinfo.ch

External Content

Popular Stories

News

In compliance with the JTI standards

More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative

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.

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR

SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR