Federal contribution to the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products Swissmedic to be increased

The legal provisions governing Swissmedic’s funding are set out in the Therapeutic Products Act (TPA). The Agency’s three main sources of income are supervisory levies, fees, and payments from the federal government for tasks not covered by levies and fees. In accordance with TPA, tasks and activities related to legislation, penal law enforcement and medical devices surveillance are funded entirely by the Confederation. For 2027, this will require a CHF 2.7 million increase in the current federal contribution of CHF 19.3 million. The federal contribution accounts for approximately 17% of the Agency’s funding; the remaining 83% comes from fees and supervisory levies for the regulation and surveillance of the pharmaceutical industry.

As became known in 2025, Swissmedic is facing a difficult financial situation. In addition to the amount of the federal contribution and a reduction in the levy on medicinal products, heavy growth in expenditure was a key driver. Accordingly, the Federal Council has made the increase in its contribution contingent on the full implementation of the results improvement measures approved by the Swissmedic Agency Council in November 2025. Swissmedic has to save a total of CHF 15 million; CHF 9 million of these savings will come from staffing costs (equivalent to 9% of these costs) and CHF 6 million recurrently from material costs. The Federal Department of Home Affairs receives regular updates.

The increase in federal contribution approved by the Federal Council as part of the 2027 budget is valid for the first year of the new strategy period 2027-2030. The Federal Council will set the contribution for the years from 2028 to 2030 as part of the process of approving the new strategic objectives in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Revision of the Swissmedic Fees Ordinance

The Federal Council also approved the amendment of the Ordinance on Fees Levied by the Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products (FeeO-Swissmedic). A registration fee for medical devices is being introduced. This is to cover the administrative work that device registration in the swissdamed database incurs for Swissmedic. Information on medical devices and the companies involved is collected, processed and published in swissdamed. The database brings transparency to the Swiss medical devices market for the public and health professionals. It was necessitated by Switzerland’s exclusion from European medical devices surveillance in 2021. Device registration will be mandatory from 1 July 2026, with a transitional period until 31 December 2026. Secondly, the text of the Ordinance includes an adjustment for inflation to the hourly rate for work charged on a time basis. This rate had been the same since 2002.