National Council wants to take action against drug wastage
Published: Thursday, May 30th 2024, 10:50
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The National Council wants to do something about drug wastage. In future, when setting the price of medicines in Switzerland, consideration should be given to whether there is a risk of waste due to the pack size, dosage strength or pharmaceutical form.
On Thursday, the National Council adopted the three points of a motion by its Social Security and Health Committee (SGK-N) with these demands by clear majorities. It will now go to the responsible committee of the Council of States for examination.
The Federal Council was in favor of adopting the motion. Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider told the Council that ten to twenty percent of the contents of the packs are not used. This corresponds to a value of 300 to 600 million francs. The potential impact of the motion is therefore great.
A minority of the SGK-N argued that patients already have the opportunity to point out unsuitable packaging. And the Federal Office of Public Health already has competencies in this area.
Specifically, the National Council wants the Federal Office of Public Health to take any wastage into account when setting the price of a medicine by imposing a reimbursement requirement on the published price.
Medical professionals should also be given the right to import medicines from abroad if pack sizes, dosage strengths or dosage forms are approved there that are more suitable and cheaper than the alternatives available in Switzerland. These medicines would have to be reimbursed by insurers.
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