Tag Archives: health

Novartis launched a new strategy in sub-Saharan Africa in 2019. Sales people will no longer be incentivised by sales targets but rather by patients reached. Reuters / Baz Ratner Novartis has said it wants everyone in the world to be able to access its products, even multi-million-dollar gene therapies. Can its experiment work? Five years ago, Swiss pharma firm Novartis did something no one else in the industry had ever done. It set out to rigorously evaluate whether...

A recent study by Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force calculates that vaccination delays are reducing Switzerland’s national output (GDP) by between CHF 50 – 100 million per day, according to RTS. © Ballok Beata | Dreamstime.comMarius Brülhart, an economics professor, told the broadcaster that vaccinating as fast as possible is important not only from a health stand point but also from an economic one. Some nations have already managed to vaccinate a significantly higher...

The Johnson & Johnson campus in Zug © Keystone / Urs Flueeler American pharma group Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is to transfer four of its canton Neuchâtel-based subsidiaries to other locations – including abroad. The move is expected to result in the loss of up to 320 jobs by mid-2023. The company wants to move the production lines for its two of its subsidiaries in Neuchâtel, western Switzerland, to Puerto Rico and Mexico. The inspection and storage...

Verbier ski lift © Le News SARL According to a recent survey by Swiss media company Tamedia, 55% of the population is in favour of closing the country’s ski domains if the Covid-19 situation gets worse. reported the newspaper 20 Minutes. Ski resorts have been working hard to control crowds and police mask wearing. At Verbier, ‘Covid Angels’ are ever present, reminding people to pull masks up over noses and have relieved a number of the worst transgressors of their...

A nurse administers the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on the opening day of the new vaccination centre at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) on January 11, 2021. Keystone / Laurent Gillieron The Swiss Covid-19 vaccination campaign is up and running with two approved vaccines available to accelerate the fight against the virus, and others set to follow. How do the vaccine technologies work and compare, and can people choose which one they get? So far, there...

This week, Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) reported 17,245 positive Covid-19 cases and 387 deaths. Over the seven days to 15 January 2021, the number daily cases reported in Switzerland averaged 2,464. This figure is significantly below the daily reported average leading up to Christmas. In the 7 days to 18 December 2020, the average daily number was around 4,300. Over the last 24 hours the results of 25,092 tests were reported, with test...

Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) recently reported that 66,000 people in Switzerland had been vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19. © Oxana Medvedeva | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge The number was communicated by Nora Kronig of the FOPH during a press conference in Bern on Thursday 14 January 2020. The 66,000 is likely to be lower than the actual number because of delays in the flow of information from cantonal health...

Tension between Switzerland’s scientists and politicians is rising, according to RTS. Bern_© Petr Pohudka _ Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge On Saturday, Christian Althaus, an epidemiologist working for the Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force, Switzerland’s scientific Covid advisory team, announced his resignation and voiced his frustration on Twitter. “One of the reasons why I left the scientific task force this week. Politicians must finally learn to face...

Recent research based on information from 3,762 Long Covid sufferers shows most still have symptoms after 7 months. © Tero Vesalainen | Dreamstime.com - Click to enlarge The study uses patient-driven research and is based on a survey created by a team of patients with COVID-19 who are members of the Body Politic online COVID-19 support group. The group conducted its first survey in April 2020 and issued a subsequent report in May 2020. Participants were not randomly...

© Pattanaphong Khuankaew | Dreamstime.com On 12 January 2021, Swissmedic, the Swiss agency for the authorisation and supervision of pharmaceutical products, approved a second vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2 virus for the Swiss market. The vaccine from Moderna, of which the federal government has ordered around 7.5 million doses, has been approved for adults from age 18. Over the coming days a delivery of 200,000 doses will be made to Switzerland’s military, which...