More people switching to generic medicine in Switzerland

Health insurance companies say that switching to generics for many medicines could provide massive savings. Keystone-SDA / Gaetan Bally

Measures to encourage more people in Switzerland to use generic medicine in place of brand name originals appear to be working.

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Anyone who wants an original brand medication today in Switzerland, even though a generic version is available, pays 40% more from their own pocket. The aim of this measure is to strengthen personal responsibility in order to curb rising healthcare costs.

And the measure is working, says Urs Kilchenmann, spokesman for the Helsana health insurance company. Since the regulation revision came into force, the proportion of generics being purchased has increased – this is shown by Helsana’s data. “This is definitely a step in the right direction.”

The current and concrete Helsana figures show that by July 2024, 25% of chronically ill people had already switched to a generic drug. In the previous year, the figure was only 12%.

The fact that healthcare costs can be saved if patients purchase cheaper imitation products instead of expensive original medications is undisputed among Swiss health insurance companies and their association Curafutura. The health insurance company Concordia, for example, reports that it alone could save ten million francs annually if the potential were fully exploited.

To achieve the full potential, not only do consumers need to demand more generics in pharmacies, but there also need to be more generics on the market.

One could dispense with the physical package insert and digitise it as a QR code on the packaging.

In Switzerland, the regulatory hurdles are so high that relatively few imitation products come onto the market, says Helsana spokesman Kilchenmann. However, simple measures would lower these hurdles. “For example, you could do without the physical package insert and digitise it as a QR code on the packaging,” suggests Kilchenmann.

You could also deviate from the original in terms of the packaging sizes. This would make the production of generics cheaper and therefore more attractive for the pharmaceutical companies concerned.

Translated from German by DeepL/jdp

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