Pharmaceutical industry Drug approval in Switzerland much slower than in Europe

According to a new study, medicines are approved on average 249 days later in Switzerland than at the European Medicines Agency (EMA). According to Interpharma, this means that access to vital medicines is becoming increasingly difficult.

The benchmarking study carried out by the pharmaceutical industry and Swissmedic shows that companies are submitting their applications later in Switzerland than in Europe and that the duration of the review process has also increased, the association of research-based pharmaceutical companies Interpharma announced on Wednesday.

On average, a drug is approved in Switzerland 249 days later than at the EMA. This represents an increase of 48 percent compared to the previous year. Companies submitted their applications for authorization to Swissmedic 244 days later than to the EMA.

Interpharma sees the poor framework conditions in Switzerland as the reason for this: these have led to the Swiss market having less and less priority.

SDA