Portugal Approves Subsidised Glucose Monitors, Cutting Type-1 Costs

Families dealing with type 1 diabetes in Portugal will soon feel a tangible difference at the pharmacy counter. The national medicines authority, Infarmed, has cleared the way for public financing of a newly authorised glucose sensor, effectively extending state reimbursement to technology that until now many households could only afford with private insurance or out-of-pocket spending.

A green light from the regulator

The decision arrived after months of clinical evaluation and cost-effectiveness modelling inside Infarmed’s Health Technology Assessment unit. Approval means the device—whose commercial name the authority did not immediately disclose—has been judged to offer “added therapeutic value” over conventional finger-prick testing, a prerequisite for entry into Portugal’s List of Reimbursable Medical Devices. Although Continuous Glucose Monitoring, or CGM, has been available in Portuguese hospitals since 2018, nationwide subsidisation remained limited to children, pregnant women and selected adults with complex metabolic profiles. The new ruling removes those restrictive criteria, opening the door to roughly 60 000 Portuguese who live with type 1 diabetes, according to the latest figures from the Observatório Nacional da Diabetes. For the public health system, the Serviço Nacional de Saúde (SNS), the move signals confidence that broader CGM coverage will reduce long-term complications—vision loss, kidney failure, cardiovascular events—and therefore future spending.

Why it matters at street level

A single sensor, worn on the arm for up to fourteen days, currently retails for about €60 to €90 depending on the pharmacy and brand. Two sensors per month translate into annual costs approaching €1 500—an amount that can dwarf the disposable income of many Portuguese families, especially in the interior where average salaries lag behind metropolitan Lisbon. Under Infarmed’s new funding model, the co-payment drops to the symbolic range applied to essential medicines, typically 10 % or less of retail price. Diabetes associations such as the APDP have long argued that better glucose coverage improves time-in-range, reduces hypoglycaemic episodes and consequently cuts emergency admissions. That argument appears to have carried weight in the economic dossier Infarmed reviewed: fewer hospitalisations mean the SNS saves resources that can be re-invested in primary care.

What is known about the device itself

While the marketing authorisation does not reveal proprietary details, clinicians contacted by Público describe the sensor as a factory-calibrated, real-time CGM system that syncs with both Android and iOS smartphones. Unlike first-generation models, it delivers glucose values every minute without the need for manual sweeps, sending low-glucose alerts directly to parents or caregivers via a cloud platform compliant with GDPR. Endocrinologists expect that feature to be particularly valuable in paediatric cases where nocturnal hypoglycaemia can otherwise go unnoticed. The manufacturer, a US-based med-tech company with a distribution hub in Sintra, has agreed to freeze wholesale prices for three years, a condition Infarmed sometimes imposes when granting broad reimbursement.

Next steps for patients and providers

Infarmed’s dispatch has been forwarded to ARSLVT and the country’s other regional health administrations, which now have 30 days to publish implementation circulars. Pharmacies will update their software to recognise the new reimbursement code, and family doctors will receive electronic training modules inside the PEM prescription system. Industry analysts believe the price volume agreement could lift Portuguese CGM penetration from the current 25 % of eligible patients to nearly 70 % within two years, mirroring adoption curves seen in Denmark and the Netherlands after similar policy shifts. For patients, the practical advice is straightforward: schedule an appointment with your endocrinologist, request an updated prescription that cites the approved reimbursement code, and verify that your local pharmacy has the sensor in stock. The SNS is expected to cover two sensors per month; additional units will remain at full retail price. Insurers such as Multicare and Médis have indicated they will align their own formularies with Infarmed’s ruling, potentially eliminating co-pays altogether for policyholders. In the words of one Lisbon-based diabetes nurse, the change means “fewer needles, more data and, ultimately, better control.”