Please bear with me, this is my first post. I'm considering a potential job with a Big Pharma corporation in Basel, but I'm having trouble estimating the costs of certain drugs, namely:

• Restasis: brand name (eye drops) for chronic dry eye disease
• Levoxyl: the brand name (not any generic form of levothyroxine, and definitely not Synthroid)
• Armour Thyroid: brand name, but since this drug is considered controversial by many endocrinologists here in the US, I'm worried about whether it's even available in Switzerland.

I realize that this kind of information highly depends upon the type of insurance plan, so any insight is appreciated. If anyone knows of English language versions of the lists named in this post, that would be great.

I would most likely sign up with a low monthly premium/high deductible plan.

Most US insurance providers have a prescription drug tool available on their websites that will provide a cost estimate- if there is anything similar available for Switzerland, I would love to hear about it.

Thank you for your time.

The basic health insurance in switzerland is standardised and government-controlled. The medication names may be different so you need to post the actual ingredients. You could contact the suppliers/check their website and ask if they have an equivalent product in europe/switzerland.

Either way, the retail prices you might be able to get online once you know the actual medication names... But the fastest way would be to give your prescription to a swiss 'house' doctor (GP) and ask them...

Overall, the system is quite dramatically different to the USA...

https://www.swissmedic.ch/arzneimitt...x.html?lang=en

None of those brand names appear in the list, so you'll have to search by ingredient or formulation number.

Restasis = Cyclosporene or Ciclosporin. See page 87 of the document provided by mirfield.

Levoxyl = Levothyroxine sodium, and it IS the same as Synthroid. Just different brand names / manufacturers. Can't find this exactly on the document, but you can search by the drug maker AbbVie and see if anything looks like a match. There is a "Euthyrox" in the list, but it is made by Merck.

Armour Thyroid is dessicated thyroid. It seems not to be a prescription medication in the U.S. since it is not FDA approved. Sounds like something you'd get from an apothecary here?

Good luck with your search.

Here's an older thread.
thyroid problems?

One thing to be aware of wrt to meds - once you reach your deductable, you are responsible for the 10% of your prescription meds cost.

Many thanks to everyone, this is very helpful. Apothecaries are rare in the US, good to know that it could be an option in Switzerland.

For better or worse, I do better on Levoxyl, rather than generic forms of levothyroxine or Synthroid.

From across the pond, I'm grateful to you all for helping me make an informed decision.

I know they have this online but not sure about import rules, just know people have had to buy from online pharmacies to get it in the UK (although it's avail many docs wont write a script for it)