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Danish shipping giant Maersk announced on March 1st 2026 that it will reroute all vessels on its Middle East-India to Mediterranean and Middle East-India to East Coast US service lines around the Cape of Good Hope indefinitely. <\/p>\n
Keystone \/ EPA\/ OLIVIER HOSLET <\/p>\n
The conflict in the Middle East has wreaked havoc on global supply chains, including those of the pharmaceutical industry. Is Switzerland applying lessons from similar challenges experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic?\n<\/p>\n
This content was published on <\/p>\n
April 23, 2026 – 09:00\n<\/p>\n
The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz over the past month has disrupted supply chains and affected the transport of a quarter of the world\u2019s gas, leading to a sharp rise in fuel prices. The International Energy Agency said the world is enteringExternal link<\/a> \u201cthe greatest global energy security threat in history\u201d, while the World Health Organisation warned of knock-on effects across sectors, including essential medicines and supplies.<\/p>\n In Switzerland, the latest report by the Federal Office for National Economic Supply (FONES), which monitors shortages in essential goods such as energy and food, said none were at risk of shortages \u2013 except therapeutic goods, defined as essential pharmaceuticals, medical devices and hygiene products. These were marked in the April 15 FONES report by a yellow box, meaning the availability of some essential pharmaceutical ingredients was \u201climited\u201d.<\/p>\n + Switzerland is known for its pharmaceutical industry. So how come medicine is\u00a0unavailable?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n Why Switzerland is running out of pharmaceuticals <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Mar 9, 2023 <\/p>\n How can a country that supplies the world with so much medicine face shortages at home? <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more: Why Switzerland is running out of pharmaceuticals This category of goods has been marked yellow since FONES began colour-coding shortages in May 2025 \u2013 about 140 essential pharmaceuticals are currently unavailable in Switzerland. They are part of a broader group of over 500 prescription drugs unavailable due to the pharma industry\u2019s dependance on just a few markets for goods. Production lines have been further weakened by the conflict in the Middle East: it has delayed delivery of chemicals central to drug and medical equipment manufacturers in China, slowed production in India, and led to higher global shipping costs.<\/p>\n There aren\u2019t any additional drug shortages yet, but experts say that generics like painkillersExternal link<\/a> are particularly vulnerable to disruptions because they are mostly imported from India and China, are subject to high shipping costs, aren\u2019t critical, and yield little financial benefits compared to patented drugs. During the Covid-19 pandemic, Switzerland temporarily limited sales of paracetamol to one box per patient. A similar situation could be possible within months, according to experts.<\/p>\n Restoring energy infrastructures will take several months and FONES has flagged that deliveries of goods to Europe will be delayed regardless of any ceasefire between Iran and the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t just stop shortages from happening, but you can be prepared\u201d, said Swiss pharmacist Enea Martinelli, who is on the committee of a citizen initiative pushing for a better approach to drug procurement.<\/p>\n Swissinfo looks at the measures Switzerland has implemented to avoid drug shortages and what changes it made after Covid-19, the last global threat to drug procurement.<\/p>\n What measures are currently in place\u00a0to avoid medicine shortages?\u00a0<\/p>\n Switzerland has an obligation to stockpile enough essential therapeutic goods, like cancer treatments, painkillers and vaccines, to last five to six months. Since 2015, distributors also have a duty to notify authorities of vital drug shortage risks that could last 14 days or more. A regularly updated list of active substances determine which drugs are considered essential and includes insulin and blood thinners.<\/p>\n But the country has been grappling with drug shortages since the start of the century due to the outsourcing of critical production stages to low-wage countries, a heavy reliance on a small number of production sites in Asia, and the reduction of stock levels throughout the value chain. Despite introducing additional measures since 2006, such as modifying laws so hospitals are better supplied in drugs, global crises like the Covid-19 pandemic or the current conflict in the Middle East systematically exacerbate what FONES says are \u201cfragile and disrupted supply chains\u201d.<\/p>\n What\u00a0about new measures?\u00a0<\/p>\n The country is currently modifying its epidemics law, which aims to protect its population from communicable diseases, to give the government more power to intervene. In the event of medical equipment shortages, for example, Bern would be able to step in, instead of only relying on the private sector\u2019s collaboration with cantons, which is how the current system works.<\/p>\n Since 2023, to overcome day-to-day shortages of vital drugs, Switzerland has introduced the reimbursement of drugs prepared by pharmacies, expanded its list of life-saving drugs, and approved fractioned sales of pill boxes. It has also agreed, in some circumstances, to give up on regular assessments that reduce prices of essential drugs to lower healthcare costs. The goal is to give drug manufacturers an incentive to keep those medicines available on the market.<\/p>\n Drug-supply chains are particularly intricate, which means that solutions are particularly difficult to implement. \u201cOne shouldn\u2019t expect revolutionary measures because they wouldn\u2019t work\u201d, said Martinelli.<\/p>\n + Find out how much hope the proposed solutions offer:\u00a0<\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n Medicine access\n <\/p>\n Five ways health authorities hope to end medicine shortages <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Jan 31, 2025 <\/p>\n Authorities in many countries are scrambling for solutions to mounting shortages of medicine. Will any of them work? <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more: Five ways health authorities hope to end medicine shortages Last month, after two years of research, the government presented a proposal to parliament: in the short term, imports from the European Union will be simplified and Swiss-specific multilingual leaflets in medicine boxes will be replaced by QR codes to ease collaboration with products authorised in the EU. By the end of 2026, Switzerland will begin classifying all drugs approved in Switzerland into various categories as opposed to just those that are essential, to determine their use and to track their availability. Until then, drugshortage.ch, set up at Martinelli\u2019s own initiative in 2016, will continue to be the only platform tracking all shortages of drugs. <\/p>\n Some of these measures are already being implemented and in the long term, the country hopes to modify its constitution to give the government additional powers, including modifying laws to give drug manufacturers economic incentives to keep selling certain drugs.<\/p>\n What problems\u00a0remain?\u00a0<\/p>\n While measures for life-saving products have been taken, manufacturers aren\u2019t required to flag shortages for drugs that aren\u2019t deemed essential and Switzerland is regularly short of drugs for chronic diseases because it can\u2019t plan ahead. For example, Swiss pharma company Galderma\u2019s powder Nemluvio, which treats severe eczema, has been out of stock since early February. Authorities have authorised the import of an identical product marketed in Germany.<\/p>\n The government\u2019s plan to monitor medication for chronic illnesses comes about ten years too late, according to Martinelli, because it will take several years before it is implemented, as Switzerland\u2019s laws can take several years to pass<\/a>. \u201cThe situation changes very fast for our system to be able to cope with it, and our political system is just too slow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Should the Middle East conflict cause further drug shortages, Switzerland would resort to its essential medicines stock. But for drugs that treat chronic diseases, Switzerland has no other choice than to \u201cwait and see\u201d and hope for international collaboration. \u201cWe are alone \u2013 that\u2019s the problem,\u201d said Martinelli.<\/p>\n Pharma supply chains are a risks for the EU as well, but the difference is that they have a strategy in contrast to Switzerland\u2019s \u201cconcept of a plan\u201d, explained Martinelli. France\u2019s strengthening of stock requirement measures in September 2021 is currently being held as a best practice across the 27-member bloc. Some EU countries also have export restrictions, meaning that when a product becomes scarce, it won\u2019t be sold outside the bloc\u2019s borders \u2013 thereby cutting out Switzerland.<\/p>\n + Swiss drug manufacturers\u2019 key European pharma partner<\/p>\n \n More<\/p>\n More <\/p>\n Slovenia\u2019s role in the global pharmaceutical supply chain <\/p>\n This content was published on <\/p>\n Feb 9, 2024 <\/p>\n Novartis and Sandoz have been investing into the Balkan nation\u2019s pharma sector, turning into a key partner for development and manufacturing of drugs. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Read more: Slovenia\u2019s role in the global pharmaceutical supply chain Switzerland\u2019s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) has its own international department, \u201cwhich maintains regular contact with other international working groups on these issues\u201d, said the FONES spokesperson.<\/p>\n However, Switzerland\u2019s market size will always be a sticking point. \u201cSwitzerland is a small market by international standards and is therefore less attractive to companies operating on a global scale, which exacerbates the situation (for example, through companies withdrawing from the market),\u201d the spokesperson added.<\/p>\n Last year, Roche\u00a0pulled its\u00a0cancer treatment Lunsumio<\/a>\u00a0from the Swiss market\u00a0because it\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0agree on pricing with the national regulator.\u00a0Meanwhile\u00a0in Interlaken,\u00a0a city in canton\u00a0Bern,\u00a0vials and perfusion bags producer\u00a0Bichsel\u00a0said it would\u00a0close at the end of the year\u00a0due to\u00a0financial difficulties, leaving it up to\u00a0one company, Streuli,\u00a0to supply\u00a0the country with medical equipment central to any treatment, according\u00a0to local\u00a0media\u00a0reportsExternal link<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Martinelli, fully setting up production lines in Switzerland is not a realistic option for cost reasons, and solving drug shortages will require a paradigm shift from approaching treatments as an economic issue to a therapeutic one. \u201cNowadays, even if a treatment is very important but is no longer profitable, it would no longer exist in Switzerland,\u201d he said, \u201cand that\u2019s what Switzerland needs to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n Edited by\u00a0Virginie Mangin\/gw\u00a0<\/p>\n Articles in this story <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Danish shipping giant Maersk announced on March 1st 2026 that it will reroute all vessels on its Middle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[101,3782,300,20382,5779,461,17,3783],"class_list":{"0":"post-54102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-switzerland","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-beat-health-systems","10":"tag-beat-pharma-supply-chains","11":"tag-healthcare-policy","12":"tag-medicine","13":"tag-production-type-original","14":"tag-switzerland","15":"tag-tpt"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"drug](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/5b7ebb20006fe2127a403b0569e4e76b-drug-shortage_highres-data.jpg\")
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