Portugal Freezes Common Drug Prices, Shielding Wallets and Supplies

Portuguese households will keep paying last year’s prices for a long catalogue of basic medicines thanks to a broadened price-lock, embedded in the new Annual Price Review (RAP). By stretching the limit to a €30 ceiling instead of €16, the rule throws a protective blanket over everyday drugs such as metformin, paracetamol, common antibiotics and antihypertensives. Officials argue that the move helps guard family wallets, cushions suppliers against chronic shortages and frees about €50 M that the Serviço Nacional de Saúde (SNS) can redirect to breakthrough therapies.

What changes for the everyday patient

Anyone collecting routine prescriptions will notice the difference most. Packs sitting below the fresh €30 threshold are now formally insulated from upward adjustments, meaning that the shelf price of a 28-tablet box of metformin, a bottle of over-the-counter paracetamol, or a course of basic antibiotics cannot rise in 2026. The government calls them “essential medicines”, a label meant to guarantee permanent presence on pharmacy counters. This protection applies equally to brand names and generics, aligning Portugal with similar safeguards in Spain, France and Italy while still permitting promotional rebates if manufacturers so choose.

Hospitals gain breathing room

Inside hospital pharmacies, the state has drawn a wider ring. Intravenous bags, oncology injectables and urgent-care solutions priced up to €75—including the cancer drug Docetaxel, everyday sodium chloride, injectable azithromycin, seizure-control valproic acid, paediatric antipyretics, and saline flushes—escape any compulsory review. Infarmed says this prevents “yo-yo” quotations that can disrupt tenders and ultimately delay therapy on the ward. Above that price, the regulator reserves full freedom to push values down if European comparisons justify it, a lever officials believe will keep high-cost treatments competitive.

Supply chain worries quietly addressed

Pharmacists have warned for years that relentless price erosion makes Portugal a less attractive destination for low-margin pills, fuelling stock outages. The Associação Nacional das Farmácias (ANF) argues that today’s freeze slows that erosion and should keep wholesalers interested. Distributors grouped in ADIFA echo the view, noting that razor-thin distribution margins have already forced them to reroute vans to more profitable markets. A February roll-out of the Regulation on Stock Management gives Infarmed extra power to mandate emergency imports and stock plans, and the price shield is expected to dovetail with those rules by removing yet another trigger for scarcity.

Counting the euros and where they go

Infarmed’s president, Rui Santos Ivo, puts the direct budget effect at €50 M saving during 2026 alone. The Ministry of Health has ring-fenced the sum for therapeutic innovation, meaning faster reimbursement of cutting-edge biologics and digital diagnostics. The pact complements the wider deal with Apifarma that caps overall public spending on drugs at 7 % growth through 2028. For scale, generic substitutions already delivered €670.5 M in savings last year, showing that controlled pricing can finance ambition when properly channelled. Officials insist that today’s cushion strikes a balance between fiscal prudence and market sustainability, two words that rarely appear in the same sentence.

What happens next

January will bring the routine publication of fresh price tables. Because the RAP also limits compulsory price cuts—5 % for drugs between €16 and €30 and 10 % above €30—manufacturers finally know the worst-case scenario before submitting 2026 catalogues. Infarmed has promised quarterly check-ins with pharmacy groups to see whether the protective ring is working. If market attractiveness does improve, the agency may extend the measure beyond 2026. For now, the order of the day is policy stability, a commodity almost as vital as the medicines themselves, and something Portugal hopes will keep shelves stocked from Bragança to Faro.