New Restrictions on Prescriptions for Diabetes Injectables and Sensors in Portugal

Starting Friday, only four medical specialties will be authorized to prescribe injectable medications and sensors for diabetes, a move welcomed by experts but criticized as being too late and potentially insufficient to address treatment access issues.

Authorized Specialties

Only doctors specializing in endocrinology and nutrition, internal medicine, pediatrics, and general and family medicine can prescribe interstitial glucose monitoring sensors and GLP-1 receptor agonist medications (including semaglutide, dulaglutide, liraglutide, and exenatide).

This class of drugs includes Ozempic, originally developed for type 2 diabetes but also used for weight loss and obesity treatment.

Government Justification

The Ministry of Health cited "widely recognized difficulties" in accessing these therapies and reports of misuse as reasons for the new restrictions. The goal is to "regulate and correct these distortions, promoting effective and appropriate access to these essential health tools."

Expert Reactions

João Raposo, president of the Portuguese Society of Diabetology, called the measure "a patch for the current situation" and lamented its tardiness. He expressed doubts about whether it would resolve access issues for diabetic patients, noting that prescriptions outside these specialties are not significant.

Raposo also raised concerns about patients currently treated by other specialists, questioning how they would transition to authorized prescribers and whether they would face delays in accessing care.

Call for Monitoring and Broader Access

Raposo urged the Infarmed and the government to monitor the measure's impact and emphasized the need to ensure all diabetic patients have access to these medications, regardless of their body mass index (BMI). He also highlighted the lack of structured support for obesity treatment, leading to irregular prescriptions and inadequate patient follow-up.

Obesity: A Neglected Disease

Raposo warned that obesity is being undervalued, leaving the market to fill the gap. "Health cannot be subject to market laws," he said, criticizing the lack of regulation for obesity treatments despite its recognition as a disease in Portugal since 2004.