Submitting an application

The deadline expired on 16 August 2021.

The following are eligible to apply:  

Applicants being a research institution or a hospital require an industry partner with necessary expertise in pharmaceutical development including regulatory affairs, clinical trials and manufacturing.

Per project, there can only be one project applicant and only one industry partner (if required).
The project can however include third party service providers.

You as an applicant and your industry partner (if required) must have an office or subsidiary in Switzerland at the time the application for funding is submitted and for the duration of the funding programme.

In order to receive funding, your project must meet the Federal Council’s funding criteria:

• Your project must make a contribution to the secure and rapid provision of COVID-19 medicines for Switzerland and it must be highly likely that the medicine will be available to the Swiss population by the end of 2022.
  
• Your project should show a high level of potential for clinical innovation.
  
• Your project should comply with the principles of subsidiarity and necessity (government support must be necessary).
  
• Your project’s development plan must be robust and of high scientific quality.
  
• You as an applicant should demonstrate relevant expertise in pharmaceutical development projects and present a convincing business plan.
  
• The federal government must receive pre-defined considerations in return (in particular a purchase option/right of first refusal).

The following projects can receive funding:

• Funding can be awarded to projects whose pre-clinical phase is largely complete and that are about to enter clinical phases I, II or III. The active substance’s mechanism of action to prevent or treat COVID-19 must have been demonstrated in a pre-clinical study or clinical trial. The proposed project should allow sufficient data on the medicine’s safety, efficacy and pharmaceutical quality to be generated for it to be used in Switzerland by the end of 2022 in accord-ance with the applicable provisions of the Federal Act on Medicinal Products and Medical Devices (Therapeutic Products Act: TPA; SR 812.21) (outside of clinical trials).

In this regard, applicants are encouraged to seek scientific advice from Swissmedic.

The following projects cannot receive funding:

• Projects not intended to develop a "medicinal product" in accordance with article 4 paragraph 1 letter a of the Federal Act on Medicinal Products and Medical Devices (Therapeutic Products Act: TPA; SR 812.21).
  
• Projects concerning vaccines against COVID-19, as vaccine development falls outside of the scope of this funding programme.
  
• Projects for medicines that are already approved in Switzerland for the use against COVID-19 in the indication, dosage form and dosage to be investigated.
  

In principle, the federal government awards funding to cover a maximum of 50% of total project costs.

After the preliminary check, you may be asked to submit a budget plan with detailed costs and sources of funds according to a template from the FOPH that will follow.

Your application will be formally checked by means of a self-declaration. You must meet the following criteria to be included in the assessment process:

• You and your industry partner (if required) must have an office and/or a subsidiary in Switzerland.
  
• You must confirm that you have acknowledged the funding programme criteria and that your project meets these criteria to the best of your knowledge and belief.
  
• You must have scientifically demonstrated the mechanism of action of the active substance to prevent or treat COVID-19 in a pre-print publication, a peer-reviewed publication and/or scientific advice from a regulatory authority.
  
• You agree to the model subsidy contract (PDF, 282 kB, 28.07.2021).
  
• You confirm that all the questions in the questionnaire have been fully answered and that all required documents (according to Checklist Information and Documents (PDF, 134 kB, 16.07.2021)) have been submitted.
  
• You consent to the processing of your data by Innosuisse and the FOPH, and their commissioned experts, for the purpose of the application and funding process.
  

The deadline expired on 16 August 2021. Applications are no longer accepted.

Do you meet all the requirements? If so, you can submit your application for the federal funding pro-grammme for COVID-19 medicines via Innosuisse’s PrivaSphere transfer platform (see box on the right). Applications submitted via any other channel will not be considered. 

The personal data contained in the application will be processed by the FOPH for the purpose of the application and funding process. By submitting an application, you consent to this data processing. Your data will be treated as confidential.

In order to facilitate the procedure, please submit the required information and documents in English if possible. However, you can also submit your application in German, French or Italian.

The following forms must be completed in full and sent with the application:

The following checklist shows all the information and documents you need to include with your application: