Switzerland

SWITZERLAND IS SMALL demographically, with a population of only 7.2 million, but it is comparable to Sweden, Israel, and Denmark as a progressive high—tech country. Its resources include 30 reproductive medicine centers, about 1,000 surplus embryos in storage before the 2001 law on reproductive medicine (allowed for use until 2005 under a law on stem cell research enacted in 2003). In 2003 the Swiss president reported that 80 surplus embryos were available in 2002, and in 2004 the interior minister said that the Swiss had produced about 200 embryos for research in a year. Other reports indicated 1,000 to 2,000. The government reported it had lost track. France, in comparison, had 95 medical institutions and fertility clinics and 120,000 frozen embryos collected over two decades. About 55 percent of these embryos were suitable for research. The United States, at the same time, had about 400,000 embryos.

The Swiss National Foundation (SNF) first funded adult stem cell research in 1978. Beginning in 1994, the SNF began budgeting for this sort of project, providing $570,000 to five projects. In the last 10 years, the SNF has funded 105 adult stem cell projects at a total of $25 million, an average of $2 to $4 million per project. The average life cycle is two to three years for a project.

Funding priorities are for immunology, embryology, and brain science. Less prevalent are cancer, pathophysiology, and clinical cardiovascular research. National Research Program (NRP) 46 is tided “Implants and Transplants” and ran from 1999 through 2006, and its budget of $12.5 million included $4.2 million for adult stem cell research. In 2001, the SNF initiated the National Centers of Competence in Research (NCCR) program, using 10 percent of the Neural Plasticity and Repair project's funding. The center had a budget in 2001–04 of $58 million, and another $57 million was set aside for 2005–08. The other three biomedicine NCCRs have not taken on stem cell research.

NRP 46 has also allocated $950,000 to seven projects for the study of the ethical and sociological aspects of stem cell research. Oversight of these projects is performed by the Swiss National Ethics Commission for Human Medicine. According to the Swiss State Secretariat for Education and Research (SER), NRP 46 will be gradually wound down and will not be extended.

Public debate is encouraged by two government—funded agencies, the Swiss Center for Technology Assessment and the Foundation for Science and Society. The first agency reports that public stem cell debate has been fairly quiet and restricted to specialist groups despite both national and local efforts to promote debate. The foundation, in turn, devoted 2002 to promoting public debate on stem cells. Each year it selects a major issue, so stem cells have now had their turn and are no longer a major issue on the agency's agenda.

Restricted by limited government funding for science and research, the SNF is somewhat passive in supporting stem cell research. The SNF says that it is awaiting bottom—up demand for research funding. The SNF lacks downward direction from the government. The Swiss Federal Office for Health (BAG) drafted the act that came into effect in 2005 and is responsible for its operation. BAG can budget for both project—specific items and nonspecific items that allow the hiring of outside experts to deal with specific issues.

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