EU dispute exacerbates drug emergency

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A hospital in the Canton of Bern: The little patient has pneumonia. He urgently needs antibiotics to fight them. In such cases, doctors often resort to amoxicillin. Recently, however, this has become a problem: this drug is no longer readily available, and substitutes often cause side effects such as diarrhoea.

These and similar emergencies have now become a part of daily life in hospitals and medical practices. In a country where the chemical and pharmaceutical industry is the most important sector of the export economy and contributes approximately five percent to the gross domestic product, there is a shortage of drugs. And things could get worse.

The reasons for unhappiness are many. Expired drugs mostly come from India or China. If manufacturers left during the corona pandemic or there were interruptions in their supply chains, it was felt around the world immediately: generics were missing, stocks were falling fast.

The complex Swiss relationship with the European Union is also responsible for this. Existing contracts have not been updated since the Federal Council stopped negotiations on a framework agreement with Brussels two years ago.

New drug rules without Switzerland

At the end of April, the EU announced a major reform of drug regulations to address drug bottlenecks. The aim is to create an internal market “to ensure that all patients in the EU have timely and equitable access to safe, effective and affordable medicines”.

There is a risk of losing unimpeded access to the internal market, as Switzerland cannot update bilateral agreements in the pharmaceutical sector due to the lack of a framework agreement. Switzerland would then be treated as a “third country” by the EU, like Brazil or Australia.

This could have serious consequences for the strained drug supply. “New barriers to open trade in goods make the situation worse,” says Samuel Lanz (39) of Interpharma, the Swiss research-based pharmaceutical companies association. In retrospect, these concerns appear to be justified: after the 2021 framework agreement negotiations stalled, medical technology companies in Switzerland and the EU found access to the other market more difficult. More than 1000 manufacturers have stopped their deliveries to Switzerland.

Beat Vonlanthen (66), a former CVP member of the Council of States and President of the Swiss Medtech industry association, said at the time: “For non-European companies wishing to establish their headquarters in Europe, Switzerland loses a lot of investment compared to EU countries due to third country bureaucracy. attractiveness.” He also worries that local start-ups may increasingly choose their headquarters in the EU rather than Switzerland, a scenario that threatens the pharmaceutical industry as well.

the government is silent

But the news from Berne gave hope: at the end of March, the Federal Council announced that the main parameters of the negotiating mandate for the institutional framework agreement with the EU will be presented in the summer. It is said that the management did its job and set the criteria. Alone: ​​Little or nothing has been heard from the government so far.

This bothers parliamentarians who are pushing for clear relations with the EU – but also because of the supply of medicines. GLP National Councilor Melanie Mettler (45) told SonntagsBlick: “The ongoing drug shortage is due to the absence of a framework agreement with the EU. It will only get better when relations with our neighboring countries are clarified.” The Federal Council must immediately issue an order for negotiating power. “Anything else would be negligent and jeopardize not only welfare but also security in Switzerland!”

The Federal Office of National Economic Supply (BWL) has described the supply of drugs as “problematic” since February. BWL spokesperson Françoise Tschanz said upon request that the situation has not changed significantly. The situation is especially critical for antibiotics and strong painkillers. The notorious delivery problems with generic drugs are a global problem with global causes. “Close cooperation with the EU is desirable.”

Source :Blick