Press release: One in three new innovative medicines not submitted for reim-bursement by health insurance companies
Switzerland is already feeling the effects of the new U.S. policy to lower drug prices. Since the U.S. announced that it would also use Switzerland as a benchmark country for its pricing, pharmaceutical companies have stopped submitting about one-third of their new innovative drugs for reimbursement by Swiss health insurers. This markedly reduces the access of patients to new therapies. The planned revision of the Health Insurance Ordinance (KVV) could further exacerbate this trend.
An anonymized and aggregated survey of Interpharma members shows that the most favored nation (MFN) regime in the US is already having a significant impact on the submission of new therapies in Switzerland. Between January 2025 and June 2026, In-terpharma members declined to submit seven of a total of 22 new innovative medicines for inclusion on the Specialties List due to the MFN regime. In three cases, they were not even submitted to Swissmedic for approval. As a result, patients in Switzerland do not have access to around a third of all newly developed, innovative medicines through compulsory health insurance, raising the prospect of a two-tiered healthcare system. The survey shows that pharmaceutical companies are already delaying or foregoing the launch of new therapies in Switzerland to avoid jeopardizing their prices in the US.
With this, any speculation about the effects of the MFN regime comes to an end: its im-pact is already measurable and poses a serious threat to equal access to innovative medicines in Switzerland. Waiting any longer will lead to a decline of patient care in Switzerland. As a reference country for the US with comparatively low purchasing-power-adjusted prices for innovative medicines, Switzerland is particularly exposed.
The US administration’s MFN regime is thus accentuating the already negative trend in access to innovative medicines in Switzerland. A study based on data from the years 2021–2024 showed that, compared to Germany, only about half of new therapies are currently available to patients in Switzerland via the FOPH’s Specialties List. Against this backdrop, it is all the more important that access to innovation is not further re-stricted. However, the proposed revision of the Health Insurance Ordinance (HIO) and the Health Insurance Benefits Ordinance (HIBO) threatens to do just that. The one-sided cost focus of the proposed legislation does not take into account the tangible con-sequences of the MFN regime and endangers patient access. The proposal must there-fore be comprehensively revised. In order to sustainably improve access to innovative therapies for patients, Switzerland needs an MFN-compatible pricing system that takes into account the aspects of care, quality and cost of innovation in equal measure