Fighting Covid-19 together
7. Excursus: People’s initiative “Yes to a ban on experiments in animals and humans – Yes to research avenues with impetus for safety and progress”
“The initiative is tantamount to a de facto ban on research.”
What is the initiative seeking to achieve?
The initiative demands an unconditional ban on animal experi- ments and research in humans. It further calls for a complete ban on trading and importing of all products that have been wholly or partly developed using animal experiments and trials in patients.
What would a yes vote on the initiative mean for the research-based pharmaceutical industry?
The initiative is tantamount to a de facto ban on research. Basic research, clinical trials and drug research for humans and animals would no longer be possible. The biomedical research of universities, hospitals and the pharma industry would move abroad and Switzerland would lose its most important resource, namely research and innovation. The consequence would be the loss of Switzerland’s leading position as a research and development hub – across all sectors and for years.
What would acceptance of the initiative mean for patients?
The ban on trading in products that have been developed using research in humans and animals would mean that the supply of medicines in Switzerland could no longer be guaranteed. Pa- tients would be denied access to innovative and potentially life-saving therapies, because they could no longer be approved and allowed on the market. But the ban on trading in these products would also result in the import and export of products from other sectors being prohibited, for example in the food industry or agriculture. Such a ban on trade is incompatible with international obligations and agreements, for instance with the European Union.
What specific consequences would a yes vote have on the fight to combat Covid-19?
The development of a vaccine in Switzerland would be banned, because drug candidates have to be tested in humans and animals. Importing a vaccine produced in another country would also be prohibited. Switzerland would thus be the only country in the world with no access to a vaccine against the SARS- CoV-2 virus.
What is Interpharma’s position?
Interpharma supports the Federal Council in its dispatch rejecting the initiative without a direct or indirect counterproposal. In principle, the member companies share the concerns of those behind the initiative to avoid the suffering of animals and to protect humans in research. But the initiative clearly goes too far. Humans and animals today are already protected by the constitution, and Switzerland has one of the strictest animal welfare laws in the world. There is no need for an amendment to the law.