More than 700 medicines face shortages in Switzerland

More than 700 medicines are currently affected by supply bottlenecks in Switzerland. The figure, tracked by drugshortage.ch, places pressure on pharmacies, hospitals and patients who rely on regular access to treatment.

The platform is run by Enea Martinelli, a hospital pharmacist who created it after concluding that the federal monitoring system covered too narrow a range of products. Swiss authorities record shortages and interruptions, but focus mainly on medicines classified as essential. Martinelli’s database follows a wider set of individual medicine packs, using information from pharmaceutical companies and a wholesaler supplying health-care providers.

The distinction matters because a shortage can reach patients before it appears in a narrower official system. Doctors and pharmacists may need to identify alternatives, adjust prescriptions or draw on existing stocks. For people receiving cancer treatment, antibiotics or injectable medicines, a replacement may require clinical approval and cannot always be made immediately.

The data does not mean that all 700 products are unavailable nationwide at the same time. It does show the breadth of the supply problem now facing Switzerland and the limits of relying on a single view of the market.

Sixty-seven medicines containing 42 distinct active ingredients are classified as critical or very critical. The shortages reach across treatments that hospitals and community pharmacies use every day.

Cancer care accounts for the largest named group, with 10 active ingredients affected. Infections, eye conditions and blood disorders each account for 5. The analysis also identifies shortages involving neurology, pain relief, heart disease, addiction treatment and psychiatry. Other affected areas include endocrinology, obstetrics, anaesthesia and supportive care.

The categories illustrate why supply disruptions can have consequences beyond a single prescription. A missing antibiotic can delay treatment for an infection. A shortage of an injectable cancer medicine can force a hospital to review treatment schedules or seek a substitute. Medicines used in obstetrics and anaesthesia are also tied to time-sensitive clinical work.

The source tracks medicine packs rather than only broad therapeutic classes. That produces a detailed picture of products affected on the Swiss market, while the active ingredient analysis shows where the most serious risks are concentrated. It also avoids treating every shortage as clinically identical.

A concentrated global supply chain can turn one factory problem into shortages across several countries. Many active ingredients and finished medicines now come from only a small number of manufacturers.

A quality failure, production delay, raw-material shortage, transport disruption or sudden rise in demand at one plant can reduce supplies far beyond the country where the problem began. Older generic medicines, antibiotics, injectable cancer treatments and opioids face particular exposure because they often have few suppliers or require complex production processes.

Switzerland has additional vulnerabilities. Its market is relatively small, which can reduce manufacturers’ incentive to maintain several suppliers or prioritise Swiss deliveries when stocks are limited. The country also depends heavily on international production. A disruption abroad can therefore reach Swiss wholesalers and hospitals even when domestic demand remains stable.

Mandatory reserves are already supplying some medicines listed as scarce. Those reserves provide a buffer, yet their use also shows how public authorities must sometimes compensate for weaknesses in commercial distribution. Maintaining access requires visibility across the chain, adequate stocks and suppliers capable of responding when one production site fails.

The National Council has backed a federal counter-proposal while recommending that voters reject the popular initiative Yes to the Security of Medical Care. The initiative, promoted by Enea Martinelli and supported by a broad health-care coalition, seeks stronger federal action to secure medicine supplies.

Five of the six parliamentary groups agreed that the initiative addresses a real problem. Most nevertheless supported the government’s counter-proposal, which they considered more targeted. The Swiss People’s Party opposed both measures.

The debate now moves to the Council of States. The parliamentary route will determine how far Bern goes in strengthening supply monitoring, preparing for interruptions and assigning responsibility for securing medicines. The source material does not set out the full legal text of either proposal, so the next stage will be important for clarifying their practical effect on manufacturers, wholesalers, hospitals and pharmacies.

The disagreement is therefore about the policy response rather than whether shortages exist. Parliament has recognised the pressure on supply, while differing over how broadly the federal government should intervene and which measures should become binding.

Switzerland’s next decision will shape how the country detects and absorbs medicine disruptions. The present system combines federal monitoring, commercial information, hospital inventories and emergency reserves. Martinelli’s platform has expanded the public view by tracking products beyond the authorities’ narrower focus on essential medicines.

The parliamentary process will now test whether the counter-proposal can address that information gap and improve preparedness across the supply chain. Any response will need to account for Switzerland’s dependence on foreign production, its small market and the limited number of manufacturers behind many older and specialised medicines.

For patients, the immediate issue remains practical access. A shortage may mean a delayed delivery, a different pack size, a substitute active ingredient or a prescription change. The clinical consequences vary by medicine, which makes accurate, current information essential for doctors and pharmacists.

The Council of States will consider the two measures after the National Council’s recommendation. Until Parliament settles the policy, hospitals and pharmacies will continue managing shortages through available stock, alternative products and mandatory reserves. The scale recorded by drugshortage.ch ensures that medicine supply remains a live federal issue.