US pricing rule forces Swiss drug makers to limit new treatments for patients

The United States' 'Most-Favored-Nation' pricing model forces pharmaceutical companies to match or undercut US drug prices in other high-income markets, including Switzerland. Because Swiss drug prices are set by the Federal Department of Public Health and are lower than US levels, firms face a dilemma: sell to the US at the same low Swiss price and incur losses after import duties, or raise Swiss prices to maintain profitability.

Interpharma says this pressure has led Swiss companies to stop submitting roughly a third of new innovative medicines for reimbursement or regulatory approval, cutting patient access to cutting-edge treatments. In the 18-month span from January 2025 to June 2026, seven of 22 new drugs were omitted from the official Swiss medicines list. Roche’s new breast-cancer therapy Giredestrant illustrates the issue, being available in the US but not pursued in Switzerland. Doctors can seek case-by-case imports, yet insurance approval rates are low—only 30 % for lung-cancer immunotherapy requests—and delays have resulted in patient deaths, according to Solange Peters of the Vaud University Hospital.