29 April 2025 – In order to bridge acute shortages of medicinal products, Switzerland’s Cantonal Pharmacists (Kantonsapothekerinnen und -apotheker der Schweiz, KAV), the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and Swissmedic have jointly agreed to temporarily extend the meaning of the term “emergency” in Article 49 of the Medicinal Products Licensing Ordinance (MPLO). The regulation will be applied transitionally, until the legislative provisions currently undergoing amendment can take effect.

As a result of this amendment, health care professionals will be able to import and store urgently required medicinal products which are not authorised or not available in Switzerland in limited quantities even if these products are not intended solely for one specific patient. In particular, the transitional regulation will improve supplies of urgently needed paediatric medicinal products, which are particularly susceptible to shortages.

For more information, see here. For the news publication of the FOPH, see here.