Guides
Eight expert briefings on the Swiss pharma and medtech landscape, sourced from Swissmedic, the FOPH and Fedlex.
- The Swiss pharmaceutical industry in numbersSwitzerland is the world's largest pharmaceutical exporter per capita. This briefing sorts out the hard numbers: how many medicines Swissmedic has authorised, how many companies hold those authorisations, how concentrated the market is and where the sites are.
- Basel Area: Roche, Novartis and the clusterWithin a 30 kilometre radius sit two of the world's largest pharmaceutical groups, a global peptide leader, several biotech listings and a dense web of suppliers, testing laboratories and consultancies. This briefing explains how the cluster came about, who is there today and what setting up realistically costs.
- How to become a Swiss marketing-authorisation holderNo ready-to-use medicine reaches the Swiss market without a marketing-authorisation holder domiciled in Switzerland. This briefing explains what the Therapeutic Products Act demands of that role, which licences and named persons sit behind it, how long the Swissmedic procedures really take, what the fees look like and why most market entrants take over an existing authorisation instead of building their own structure.
- Swiss establishment licences: who needs which oneA marketing authorisation lets you sell a medicinal product. An establishment licence lets you make it, import it, store it or pass it on. They are two separate procedures with separate dossiers. This briefing maps every activity to the right licence and the right authority, explains the role of the responsible person and shows how a Swissmedic application realistically runs.
- Pharmaceutical wholesale and logistics in SwitzerlandThe Swiss market is small, dense and trilingual. Three full-line wholesalers and a handful of logistics providers reach practically every pharmacy, drugstore and hospital, often twice a day. This briefing explains who plays which role in distribution, which GDP duties apply, how price and margin are built up, and which model decision a market entry actually has to take.
- Swiss medtech: regions and clustersSwitzerland builds insulin pens, hearing aids, dental implants, bone screws and micro components for catheters, spread across half a dozen regional clusters from Bettlach to Stäfa. This briefing shows where manufacturing sits, who the notable names are and how MDR, IVDR and the lapse of the MRA chapter have reshaped the sector since May 2021.
- The Swiss CDMO landscapeA substantial share of the world's active ingredient synthesis, peptide manufacturing and sterile filling runs through Visp, Zofingen, Bubendorf, Muttenz, Dottikon and Biasca. This briefing explains which CDMO segments Switzerland serves, how a contract relationship works commercially and in regulatory terms, and what a shortlist really has to check.
- How to find a Swiss distribution partnerThe Swiss market is small, trilingual and densely regulated, and the partner you pick decides who ends up owning market access. This briefing compares the four partner models, lists the checks to run before signing, names the contract clauses that later decide everything and sets out the market realities that foreign teams routinely underestimate.