Following the conclusion of negotiations on the enhanced UK–Switzerland Free Trade Agreement (FTA), we explore how it will boost innovation across two global leaders in life sciences.
The agreement is designed to be future-facing, and aims to provide (i) legal certainty around IP rights for medicinal products, (ii) mechanisms to drive cross-border partnerships, and (iii) seamless mobility of the best expertise and talent.
Certainty on IP rights and exclusivity
Strong and proportionate IP is the foundation of pharma and biotech innovation. For the first time, in a trade deal of this calibre, the UK and Switzerland have explicitly committed to maintaining the IP rights and regulatory exclusivity currently available to life sciences innovators in Europe.
In particular, the FTA commits the UK and Switzerland to maintain the additional IP protection available for medicinal products via Supplementary Protection Certificates (SPCs). SPCs offer up to 5.5 years of protection beyond the standard 20-year patent term — the exact duration calculated based on the time taken to achieve regulatory approval and grant of a marketing authorisation (MA). Notably, there is flexibility to increase the maximum available SPC term. At the end of 2025, a possible 12-month extension of SPC protection was proposed for new EU-manufactured biotech medicinal products under a proposed European Biotech Act. The flexibility built into the FTA will allow the UK and Switzerland to grant a similar extension if desired.
Additionally, the enhanced deal locks in the existing 10-year period of Regulatory Data Protection (RDP) following the grant of a marketing authorisation. This RDP period comprises 8 years of data exclusivity (during which generic or biosimilar companies cannot rely on the MA holder’s clinical data to gain their own regulatory approval), followed by 2 years of market exclusivity (which prevents launch of a generic or biosimilar medicine even if approved). Again, this provides insulation from volatility in EU provisions. Notably, the EU Pharma Package (agreed earlier this year, but not yet implemented) moves away from the ‘8+2 years’ of RDP in favour of a less predictable ‘8+1+1 year’ structure. In this new structure, the second year of market exclusivity is conditional on the therapy meeting certain criteria that align with the EU’s objectives.
The enhanced agreement should give confidence to Swiss and UK innovators, encouraging big pharma to commit to long-term R&D for bringing new therapies to market, while also helping early-stage companies to secure investment and grow.
More information on the existing protection can be found in our Guide to IP rights and exclusivity for pharma and biotech in Europe here.
Driving cross-border collaboration and investment
The UK-Swiss FTA also offers several mechanisms to strengthen collaboration, deal-making and investment.
First, the FTA establishes a dedicated Innovation Working Group which unites industry, academic institutions, and government to keep pace with emerging technologies (such as AI drug discovery), and to identify opportunities and address challenges as they arise. As a result, this should encourage more partnerships between UK and Swiss life sciences organizations.
In addition, the bilateral agreement modernises the regulations on cross-border services and investment. This is expected to make it easier for big pharma to acquire, license, or co-develop therapies with spin-outs, and for early-stage companies to raise capital.
The enhanced deal also includes data privacy safeguards to ensure that the trade of data (e.g. training data sets and models for AI drug discovery) is secure.
Streamlined mobility of expertise and talent
As cross-border collaborations grow, UK and Swiss companies may need to deploy human capital (including researchers, clinical developers and regulatory experts) between the two countries.
The FTA builds on existing provisions to facilitate business mobility, offering long-term certainty to UK and Swiss professionals. Specifically, the provisions facilitate intra-corporate transferees (ICTs) across the two countries, and make permanent the ability for UK and Swiss professionals to travel for up to 90 days per year to the other country without requiring a work permit.
Overall, the trade deal positions the UK and Switzerland as stable, future-proof, and growing markets for pharma and biotech companies.
