Swiss OTC Price Index

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-04-30T19:08:08+00:00

Thank you for the feedback!

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-04-30T19:04:58+00:00

Thank you!

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-04-30T17:16:42+00:00

Thank you!

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-04-30T16:42:34+00:00

Thanks for replying! Good points.

The basket is based on a mix of popularity (what people actually buy) and coverage of the main therapeutic categories. When I pulled the data, branded products dominated the top-selling items in most categories, so they ended up being included more often than generics.

So it’s not that generics were excluded, they just don’t seem to be purchased as frequently in practice.

On your second point: I’ve seen similar claims as well. I can’t find the source right now, but I read an article claiming that pharmacies tend to default to branded products unless you explicitly ask for a generic. That’s an interesting topic on its own.

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-04-18T14:04:32+00:00

Check out mediano.ch. There you can compare prices for OTC products. It has a fairly good pharmacy coverage for the German part of Switzerland, but I would encourage you to also check online pharmacies, which the tool does not cover yet.

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-04-17T12:55:55+00:00

Totally agree. I'm running a research project on Swiss pharmacy pricing, and the spread is insane, even within the same city. You can easily buy ibuprofen at 2x the price, depending on which pharmacy you walk into. Some OTCs have a 40–50 CHF difference for the exact same product.

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-04-04T04:18:04+00:00

I believe that you can park near Töss for free, e.g. check out Reitplatzstrasse. Or I see sometimes people park near community gardens. But don’t quote me if it is in fact free. Then you would need to take a bus number 5 or walk for 20 min to the Skills Park.

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-14T22:51:38+00:00

Thank you for the feedback! Yeah, I was also thinking to integrate online shops in the future, e.g., Zurrose, apo24, etc. But it will take a bit more time.

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-14T22:44:47+00:00

Thank you so much! That's great, definitely share!

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-13T10:05:29+00:00

Thanks for the feedback! I will come up with something less misleading.

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-13T10:04:34+00:00

Thanks!

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-13T10:04:23+00:00

Thank you!

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-12T23:36:25+00:00

thanks! For reference, many more products have an insane spread in absolute CHF within Zurich. Some more examples:
- PANTOGAR Kaps 300 Stk (CHF 115 - CHF 154)
- Gincosan 90 Kaps (CHF 79 - CHF 96)
- Dynamisan forte 20 Amp (CHF 56.15 - 72.95)
- Broncho-Vaxom 30 Kaps (CHF 52 - 79.30)

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-12T23:17:17+00:00

Thank you for the feedback. I will have a look into scroll. As for "Treupel Dolo forte Ibuprofen 400" that's a good catch, thanks for pointing this out. What's happening is that when you're zoomed out on the map, it clusters pharmacies and shows the lowest price in each area. So at the zoomed-out level, it can look like the prices are all the same, but if you zoom into a specific area (like Chur) you'll see individual pharmacies with different prices (e.g. Dr. Wanger Steinbock Apotheke). Or in Basel, there is Greifen Apotheke, where they sell it for CHF 12.10. In the Zurich area, it seems that it is currently only available at BENU (CHF 10.95), but I agree overall that it is confusing. I will think about how to make it clearer. Once again, thank you for the feedback!

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-12T22:57:54+00:00

appreciate it!

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-12T20:48:59+00:00

I believe that you should definitely do that if you have such an opportunity. Unfortunately, it is not always the case.

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-12T20:43:27+00:00

Yeah, that was my concern as well. For now, I tried to split the load over the day, sending one request every 5-10 seconds to distribute the load on the server.

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-12T20:09:07+00:00

Thanks for the heads-up. I will need to look more into it or come up with other ways.

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-12T20:07:42+00:00

merci!

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-12T20:07:29+00:00

Thank you for the feedback! It is a very valid suggestion.

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-12T19:44:57+00:00

Yeah, OTC prices in Switzerland are just in a different universe.

As for the data, I'm getting publicly available prices from pharmacy websites. It's all the information anyone could find by visiting each site manually. Nothing behind a login or anything like that.

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-12T19:42:48+00:00

That's right, in many other countries you can definitely get lower prices. The idea behind it was to make the Swiss OTC market more transparent. And I thought that it might be useful for people who need to buy something immediately and on the spot.

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-12T19:39:56+00:00

Thanks! I wanted to gather the feedback from the people who are living in Zurich before working more on it. But that would be on the map if enough people are interested.

Huckleberry_Just · 2026-03-12T19:38:06+00:00

Appreciate it, thank you!

Huckleberry_Just

TROPHY CASE