Federal Administrative Court, Decision C-2798/2020 of 27 August 2021

23 septembre 2021 – The matter in dispute in this case consisted of two rulings by Swissmedic. On the one hand, Swissmedic had issued a ruling prohibiting the appellant from using the advertising statements "Without alcohol" and "We open up the healing powers of nature to you" to advertise its medicine. Swissmedic then issued a second ruling stating that the subsequent proposal submitted by the appellant for the repositioning of the company slogan in advertising to the public did not meet the legal requirements. The appellant appealed against this decision, which is why the Federal Administrative Court had to examine whether the appellant's publications infringed the provisions of the legislation on therapeutic products relating to advertising.

After a detailed examination, the court classified the negative declaration "Without alcohol" in relation to the excipient alcohol as an additional indication to the name of the medicine and therefore as an inadmissible advertising element. In addition, the Federal Administrative Court ruled that Swissmedic was also right to object to and prohibit the advertising slogan "We open up the healing powers of nature for you" in the specifically published form, as this at least implied that the medicine guaranteed a "better effect" or "better tolerance" as a result of the reference to the healing powers of nature. Moreover, the declaratory ruling was also lawful.

The Federal Administrative Court consequently dismissed the appeal.

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