canmed

← Back to all articles

What Swiss research knows about medical cannabis

canmed association
ResearchUZHETH

Anyone discussing medical cannabis in Switzerland today is drawing, often unknowingly, on a surprisingly dense research landscape: epidemiological data from the University of Zurich, fundamental chemical and pharmacological work at ETH Zurich, and the national MeCanna reporting system run by the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH). What we know, what we don’t yet know, and where the data come from.

1. ISGF (UZH): who uses cannabis therapeutically in Switzerland

At the Swiss Research Institute for Public Health and Addiction (ISGF) of the University of Zurich, the BAG-Medizinalcannabis-Studie, commissioned by the FOPH, was completed in 2019. Its aim: “to examine cannabis users who consume it for therapeutic purposes more closely”.

Key findings from the project context:

  • Access to medical cannabis was heavily encumbered by administration. ISGF described access as “still tied to administrative hurdles”, pushing many patients into the grey market.
  • For reasons of cost and supply, many fell back on non-prescription sources.
  • The long-term objectives explicitly included “reducing the cost of medically used cannabis and eliminating administrative hurdles”.

An accompanying fact sheet distinguishes recreational from medical motives and provides an empirical basis for how these groups actually differ in Switzerland, a distinction often blurred in public debate.

The study was cited in 2022 as part of the policy argument for the law change and is one of the few large-scale Swiss data sources from the patient perspective.

2. ETH Zurich: fundamental research on cannabinoid receptors

At ETH Zurich, the group of Prof. Erick Carreira (Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences) has worked for years on the pharmacology of cannabinoid receptors. In 2018 the team presented photoswitchable THC: variants of tetrahydrocannabinol whose spatial structure can be changed with ultraviolet light and switched back with blue light.

What sounds exotic at first is methodologically important:

  • Researchers can activate or deactivate CB1 receptors with spatial and temporal precision unavailable to classical pharmacological tools.
  • This allows a better understanding of how the endocannabinoid system regulates pain, memory, motor control and mood, the very domains where medical cannabis is used clinically.
  • Such fundamental work is the prerequisite for developing, in the future, more targeted cannabinoid therapeutics with fewer psychotropic side effects.

ETH does not deliver the clinical evidence here but the mechanistic understanding without which targeted drug development can hardly succeed.

3. MeCanna (FOPH): the national real-world data source

With the law change of 1 August 2022, the FOPH introduced the national reporting system MeCanna. Prescribing physicians are required to enter anonymised data on cannabis therapy. The FOPH states that what is captured is in particular “medical information regarding the therapy and its course”, specifically:

  • indication and diagnosis
  • dosage form (e.g. flowers, oily solution, authorised medicinal product)
  • dosing
  • effects and side effects
  • course of therapy after one and two years

Data collection is scheduled to run until 2029. The aim is to improve the evidence base on effectiveness and safety, which the FOPH currently considers “insufficient” for general reimbursement by mandatory health insurance.

MeCanna is therefore one of the largest sources of real-world data on cannabis medicines in Europe, provided that reporting discipline is high in practice.

What these three strands add up to

ActorType of researchContribution
ISGF (UZH)patient surveys, health-services researchWho needs cannabis, with what hurdles
ETH Zurichchemical and pharmacological fundamentalsHow cannabinoids act at the receptor
FOPH MeCannareal-world data from prescribingHow therapies evolve in everyday practice

Only together do they produce a picture strong enough to dissolve the current scepticism around reimbursement. The FOPH notes that “the available evidence on effectiveness and economic efficiency … is currently insufficient for general reimbursement”.

What patients can take from this

  • The therapy decision should be guided by established indications (chronic pain, spasticity in MS, chemotherapy-induced nausea), where evidence is strongest.
  • Data collection within MeCanna is not bureaucratic for its own sake. It is the only structural pathway to broader basic-insurance reimbursement in the medium term.
  • Anyone starting therapy is also contributing to the Swiss evidence base, provided the mandatory data are recorded cleanly.

This article summarises publicly available Swiss research and data sources. It does not replace medical advice. For an individual assessment, please consult a physician from our directory.

Sources

  1. BAG-Medizinalcannabis-Studie (project page, ISGF UZH) · Swiss Research Institute for Public Health and Addiction, University of Zurich
  2. RCA Medizinalcannabis, final report 2019 · ISGF, University of Zurich
  3. Fact sheet: cannabis use, recreational or medical motives? · ISGF, University of Zurich
  4. Intoxicatingly light-sensitive (Carreira group, photoswitchable THC) · ETH Zurich
  5. Reporting system for cannabis medicines (MeCanna) · Federal Office of Public Health FOPH
  6. FAQ cannabis medicines (evidence and reimbursement) · Federal Office of Public Health FOPH