According to a report by the National Authority of Medicines and Health Products (Infarmed) monitoring outpatient medicine expenditure, patients’ out-of-pocket costs rose by 2.4% year-on-year during this period.

The average cost per medicine for each patient was €4.71, with almost 139 million medicine packs dispensed between January and August, 3.6 million more than in the same period last year.

The report also shows that the SNS spent more than €1,338 million subsidising outpatient medicines, an increase of €98.1 million compared with the January-to-August period in 2025.

The average cost per pack for the SNS was €9.79, more than double the amount paid by patients.

Average cost per medicine pack

Between January and August this year, the average cost per pack for the SNS increased by €0.47 compared with the same period in 2025, Infarmed reported.

The authority identified antidiabetic medicines as the therapeutic class accounting for the highest expenditure between January and August, costing the public health service €334.9 million. This represents a year-on-year increase of more than 10%.

Weight-loss medicines

Semaglutide, the active ingredient in antidiabetic medicines also used for weight loss, recorded the largest increase in expenditure for the SNS during the first eight months of this year, rising by 54.5%.

The substance accounted for more than €49 million in expenditure, an increase of €17.3 million compared with the same period in 2025.

The report also states that more than half of all medicine units dispensed were generic medicines, which reached a market share of 50.6%, down from 52.2% in recent years.

Infarmed stressed that the figures presented in the report do not reflect all contributions resulting from the implementation of the agreement between the Government and the Portuguese Pharmaceutical Industry Association, or from financing contracts.

In practice, contributions and repayments made by the pharmaceutical industry to the SNS will be deducted from the public health service’s total medicine expenditure.

In the 2026 State Budget, the Government forecast savings of more than €200 million on medicines and clinical consumables within the SNS.

In 2025, the SNS spent €1,893.8 million subsidising outpatient medicines and €2,523.2 million on medicines in hospitals and health centres.

This year, up to August, expenditure reached €1,338.5 million on outpatient medicine subsidies and €1,828.4 million in hospitals and health centres.

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