Falsified Medicinal Products: Swissmedic Intensifies Controls on International Trade

Counterfeit medicines continue to appear in international supply chains. We recently reported that Swissmedic, the Swiss agency for the authorisation and supervision of therapeutic products, inspected over 1,000 suspicious postal shipments from abroad as part of an internationally coordinated campaign against illegal trading in medicinal products. Numerous counterfeit or unapproved medicines were seized during the inspections.

In recent years, however, a number of incidents have emerged in which Swiss trading companies were involved in distribution chains with medicinal products from third-party suppliers - particularly from Turkey - that subsequently proved to be falsifications. Against this background, Swissmedic carried out a targeted campaign. A press release dated 27 March 2025 reports on the intensification of controls on international trade with suppliers from non-EU countries.

The authority identified 73 Swiss companies with the Swissmedic “Import for export” licence module. Of these, 16 companies were examined..

Swissmedic has summarised the result in a PDF document as follows:

• 5 companies submitted insufficient documentation.
• Minor deficiencies were identified at 4 companies.
• No deficiencies were identified at 7 companies.

In particular, it was criticised that some companies were unable to trace the origin of the medicinal products back to the marketing authorisation holder - although this has been clearly required since a Swissmedic publication in May 2021 at the latest. In two cases, an irregular mixing of pharmacy operations and wholesale activities was also found.

In conclusion, it became clear that there was often a lack of awareness of the legal requirements and obligations regarding supply chain traceability.

Swissmedic has announced that it will monitor compliance with GDP requirements even more closely in future. The aim is to minimise the risk to patients and strengthen the protection of the legal supply chain.