Pharma demands a strategy from Parmelin and Baume-Schneider

Competition has intensified in recent years, and Switzerland is losing its attractiveness.Image: keystone / dr

The pharmaceutical industry contributes significantly to Switzerland’s prosperity. But to keep it that way, the Interpharma association is asking for a long-term plan.

Pascal Michel / ch media

The pharmaceutical industry is the engine of employment in Switzerland. The number of people employed in the sector has doubled since 1980. Currently, 282,000 people work directly or indirectly for Roche, Novartis and Co. The contribution of these companies to Switzerland’s economic power is impressive: pharma contributes a tenth to gross domestic product; companies in the sector provide 40% of the country’s exports.

“Switzerland has become an attractive location thanks to the efforts made. It’s a feat,” declared René Buholzer, director of the Interpharma association, Thursday during a press conference. Thoughtfully, he added:

“We have a favorable position, but this is not a credit to the current generation of politicians. Investors are turning more and more abroad.”

It is the duty of a professional association to defend the interests of its members. In this case, these are pharmaceutical companies involved in research in Switzerland. In this context, lobbying organizations often tend to adopt an alarmist tone. According to the motto: it is better to warn too often than once too little.

Darkening prospects

However, there are indeed signs which show that Switzerland is losing its attractiveness. Competition has intensified in recent years. Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Belgium have developed their own pharmaceutical strategies. They want to attract cutting-edge companies. At the same time, Switzerland is also in competition with the United States and China, which are gaining a lot of ground in the rankings.

Recently, several companies have reversed course in Switzerland. The most recent example is that of Johnson&Johnson. The American group announced that it wanted to “optimize” its activities in order to be able to survive in a “complex and rapidly changing environment”. Wednesday’s press release does not provide precise information. But it seems that 100 positions are affected in Switzerland and that the European headquarters of DePuy-Synthes in Zuchwil (SO), which belongs to the group, is on the verge of closing. Johnson&Johnson employs a total of 5,500 people in the country, at nine different sites.

These developments worry Jörg-Michael Rupp, director of Pharma International at Roche. He asks the Federal Council to develop its own pharmaceutical strategy.

“Switzerland must think seriously about how it can stay at the forefront”

According to him, it is important that the government adopts a long-term approach. Pharmaceutical companies plan their investments over long periods: up to 20 years. The message from Roche’s manager is this: if the political world does not act now, the bill will not be immediate, but it will come. It will then be too late.

Are the competent federal councilors – Economy Minister Guy Parmelin (UDC) and Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider (PS) – sleeping? René Buholzer would not phrase it so harshly. But he says clearly:

“We do not understand why the Federal Council does not see the need to act in view of current developments.”

Buholzer refers to the response of the Federal Council to parliamentary intervention. Four years ago, PLR State Advisor Martin Schmid wanted to know where the Swiss pharmaceutical sector was. He had called for the creation of an advisory council that would advise the government on the future of the industry. The Federal Council considered that this was not necessary. The argument put forward was the sufficient number of existing bodies to discuss future developments.

Interpharma believes that action must also be taken within the Swiss health system. Currently, it takes on average 300 days between the authorization of a medicine and its inclusion on the “list of specialties”. Only then must all health insurance companies reimburse treatment under basic insurance.

The director of Pfizer Switzerland, Sabine Bruckner, describes this figure as a “sad record”. She calls for new medicines to be reimbursed from “day 0”, that is to say from the day Swissmedic authorizes a product. In this model, price negotiations would be conducted in parallel.

“Every day counts for patients”

Of course, there is also the perspective of the authorities: according to its own information, the FOPH is increasingly faced with “very high price demands” from manufacturers. This slows down the process. In addition, companies themselves are filing their applications later and later. However, things are moving forward. The National Council recently decided in favor of reimbursement from “day 0”. The matter is now in the hands of the Council of States commission. (aargauerzeitung.ch)

Translated and adapted from German by Léon Dietrich