Sales of obesity drugs skyrocketed in Portugal last year, exceeding half a million packages sold, almost five times more than in 2024. This is all the more surprising when one realises these drugs cost the people taking them more than €300 per month – and are not yet subsidised by the state.
Rui Santos, president of medicines authority INFARMED, confirms that work is ongoing to establish a form of state subsidy. But in the meantime, hundreds of thousands of nationals are popping these expensive modern answers to obesity.
According to data from the National Association of Pharmacies (ANF) – based on information from Health Market Research (HMR) – the “significant growth” in sales has been “mainly driven by the entry of Mounjaro and Wegovy” into the Portuguese market.
Data released to Lusa news agency to mark World Obesity Day today shows a growing demand for these drugs since 2019, when only 45,787 packages were sold.
In 2020, this rose to 46,500 (+1.6%) packages – and the numbers have been increasing in leaps and bounds ever since.
Currently, there are a number of drugs containing used for weight loss available on the Portuguese marke: Orlistat, Mysimba (bupropion + naltrexone), Saxenda (liraglutide), Wegovy (semaglutide), and Mounjaro (tirzepatide).
The National Association of Pharmacies points out that Mounjaro has therapeutic indications for type 2 diabetes mellitus as well as weight control.
State subsidies for these drugs have been demanded by specialists, doctors, and patient associations for some time now.
Another treatment strategy is bariatric/metabolic surgery (often dubbed ‘gastric-band surgery’), which also increased in the health service (SNS) last year.
According to data from the Executive Directorate of the SNS, 4,005 surgeries were performed in 2025, 312 more than in 2024 (3,693) and 581 more than in 2023 (3,424).
The average waiting time for surgery was 4.75 months, according to the data, which shows that at the end of 2025, 1,811 patients were on the waiting list for surgery.
The law establishes that normal priority surgeries must be performed within a maximum period of six months (180 days).
Speaking to Lusa, president of the Portuguese Society of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism (SPEDM), Paula Freitas, said that “surgical obesity treatment centres are working better and better”, but demand remains very high.
Freitas gave the example that at the centre where she works, ULS São João, around 1,000 patients are operated on each year, but the waiting list is long because there are “many, many patients in need of a surgical solution.”
In addition, the endocrinologist explained, many of them need pharmacological treatment, before and after surgery.
Paula Freitas emphasised that “obesity is a chronic, very complex disease” in which patients will need all available strategies throughout their lives.
“Fortunately, we now have good strategies, and we hope to have even better ones in the future” with the evolution of surgery and drugs, she added – insisting that “many tools are needed to try to treat this very serious disease that causes so many deaths.”
Regarding the new drugs, Paula Freitas concedes that “they are very effective” (and should be subsidised). While they aren’t, the best way of facing the cost is seeing it as an investment “in health gains and prolonging life”.
The specialist acknowledged, nonetheless, that obesity is more prevalent in the most disadvantaged social classes and, thus, for many, access to weight-loss drugs is not currently possible.
Source material: LUSA
