Medicines and pharmacies in Portugal: prescriptions, prices and what the state pays for
The appointment is over, you have a prescription — and now comes the part the doctor doesn't tell you about. There is no paper; instead there's a code by SMS. The same medicine costs three euros at the till one time and a hundred another, and that depends not on the pharmacy but on which diagnosis the doctor wrote on the prescription. The medicine you're used to from home doesn't exist here at all; there's a different one with the same substance. One pharmacy asks for a prescription, the one next door doesn't. This guide covers the whole journey: how a paperless prescription works and how long it lasts, why you can collect medicines in instalments and why you won't be given more than two months' supply at once, what makes up the price at the till, what comparticipação is and why with diabetes the state pays 90% of an injection but for excess weight nothing, how to find the local equivalent by active substance, what is sold without a prescription, where to check the price before going to the pharmacy, how pharmacies work at night and what to do with your own medicines brought from home. Everything about percentages, time limits and amounts comes from Portaria n.º 224/2015, Decreto-Lei n.º 118/2026 and the INFARMED medicines database; everything else comes from conversations with people who have already been through it.
There's no paper prescription any more: what you're given at the appointment
In Portugal prescriptions are issued in a single state system, and paper has been taken out of the chain: under article 5 of Portaria n.º 224/2015 a prescription is electronic and “paperless” by default — receita sem papel. A handwritten prescription remains only as a last resort: when the system isn't working or the person has nothing to receive an electronic one on (article 8).
Instead of paper you get a guia de tratamento — a slip with three things on it, and you'll need all three at the pharmacy:
— the prescription number (número da prescrição); — the access and dispensing code (código de acesso e dispensa) — without it the pharmacy won't hand over anything, as paragraph 2 of article 18 says plainly; — the right-of-choice code (código do direito de opção) — with it you confirm that you're taking a different medicine from the one the pharmacy offered you itself.
The slip is sent by email, by SMS or to the SNS 24 app; you'll get a paper copy if you ask (paragraph 7 of article 14). You can also see your prescriptions in your SNS 24 personal area, and that's the most reliable way: an SMS gets lost and goes to whatever number is recorded in the system, whereas in your personal area the prescription is always there.
At the pharmacy itself there are two ways into a prescription (article 16): either you hand over your citizen card, or you give the prescription number and the access code. The pharmacy has no right to get into your record any third way. Hence a simple consequence: come with your ID and the codes, not with “but the doctor prescribed it”.
“At the saúde you can ask for a prescription without an appointment, there's a special box hanging (or standing) there for prescription requests - they'll send it to the sns app and to your email if you ask. You can also actually just email them, say your medicine is running out, you need a prescription and the appointment's ages away, you can attach the old prescription as proof - they should give you one too.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal25.10.2025
“And yeah, you absolutely have to go to the pharmacy with your residence permit/passport for prescription stuff”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatleiria17.06.2026
A prescription is valid for a year, not a month
This is the first thing that surprises newcomers. Since 18 August 2023 (Portaria n.º 263/2023, which rewrote article 13) a prescription in Portugal has been valid for 12 months. Only two kinds last thirty days: a handwritten prescription and a prescription for a medicine for a short or medium course — something treated for a week or two, such as an antibiotic. The period is counted not from the day of issue but from the following day.
The practical upshot is simple: if you take something regularly — for blood pressure, thyroid, diabetes, the contraceptive pill — one visit to the doctor covers the year. What's more, under paragraph 8 of article 5, for long-term treatment the doctor prescribes in one go as many packs as are needed for the same 12 months.
The pharmacy isn't obliged to accept an expired prescription, and you shouldn't count on leniency: the system sees the date. Stories of “they sold it to me on an old one” do come up, but that's not the rule — it's the decision of a particular pharmacist, and they answer for it.
“I buy L-thyroxine for my wife on an expired prescription from 2022) I show the same one every time and say I don't need the discount. just give us the drug she always has to take it))”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal11.08.2026
“i think you could also try asking the pharmacist at the pharmacy directly. My doctor told me that pharmacists can sell some drugs themselves, if they reckon it's really needed. That's how in 1 pharmacy they sold me something on an expired prescription, they just said well if you need it what can you do.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa24.05.2023
You can collect in instalments — but no more than two months at a time
On a paperless prescription each medicine is its own line (linha de prescrição), and the lines live separately from one another. Paragraph 6 of article 18 allows different lines of one prescription to be collected at different pharmacies and at different times. You've been prescribed three medicines but need one today — take one, and the rest stay in the system.
Stocking up for a year ahead won't work, though, and that's news from this summer. Since 4 July 2026 (Portaria n.º 286-B/2026/1, which rewrote article 17) the pharmacy dispenses no more than two months of treatment at a time. If there's nothing to work out the length of treatment from, the ceiling is different: two packs per line a month, four for single-dose ones. The exceptions in paragraph 7 are named explicitly: the medicines were lost or stolen, or the person is leaving the country for a long time. Then you'll be given more, but you'll have to explain.
If the pharmacy doesn't have the medicine you need, they'll order it — it usually arrives the next day. And in a genuine shortage, when INFARMED has declared a supply disruption, the pharmacy may dispense the same medicine in a different form or strength (paragraph 8 of article 17) — so there's no need to go back to the doctor with it.
“That's if it's a paper one (some pharmacies by the way ask you to just email them a photo of the prescription, so you can keep the prescription). Also, when you order a drug the pharmacy doesn't have right now, different pharmacies do it 2 ways: * take the prescription and mark the drug as dispensed. Even if you haven't picked it up yet. And then you just come and pick it up, without the prescription. * leave you the prescription, the drug isn't marked as dispensed yet. When you come to pick it up, they take the prescription and mark it in the system as dispensed.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa12.02.2026
“I have a prescription, but you can't buy it right now, I haven't even found generics in the pharmacies yet (something about problems at the factory, apparently)”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto13.06.2026
Without your utente number on the prescription you'll pay the full price
Reimbursement isn't a shop discount but the share the state pays for its own people. So everything hinges on the número de utente, your number in the state health service: if it isn't on the prescription, you'll have to pay in full, however correct the prescription is.
An important point people get wrong all the time: a private doctor also issues prescriptions with reimbursement. What matters isn't whether the clinic is state or private, but whether your number is on the prescription and whether you're entitled to cover. A doctor at a private clinic enters the number just as a doctor at a health centre does; if they didn't, ask them to redo it — it takes a minute.
Second: a temporary number isn't the same as a permanent one. A number obtained before your residence permit doesn't in itself give you the right to reimbursement or to free appointments. Once you have the card, you need to go to your centro de saúde and update your details — only then does the number start to work. How to get the number and register with a health centre is covered in the guide How to register with a health centre and see a doctor, and the queue for your own doctor in Family doctor in Portugal.
And third, less obvious: for pensioners on a low income and for people on special regimes for an illness, the prescription carries letters — “R” for the former and “O” for the latter, with a reference to the regulation next to it (paragraphs 9 and 10 of article 6). If you're one of them and the letter isn't there, reimbursement will be calculated under the general rule.
“just the prescription itself, and give your nif and utente (but it's most likely already there in the hidden info). The discounts kick in through the utente if a doctor wrote the prescription”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal13.03.2026
“Until you get your residence permit, even though you do have a number, formally it doesn't give you any discounts on medicines or free consultations, and they'll give you prescriptions on paper. When you get your residence permit, go to your centro de saúde and they'll ‘activate’ your number.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal10.07.2026
“The utente number has to be on the prescription, then you'll get the discount. Ask your doctor to redo the prescription”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal13.05.2025
What makes up the price at the till: 90, 69, 37 and 15 percent
Since 1 July 2026 reimbursement has been governed by Decreto-Lei n.º 118/2026, which repealed the previous one from 2015. The percentages stayed the same, and there are only four of them (article 35):
— escalão A — 90%: insulins and antidiabetic medicines, antiepileptics, medicines for parkinsonism and for glaucoma, anticancer drugs; — escalão B — 69%: antibiotics, thyroid hormones, most ordinary prescription medicines; — escalão C — 37%; — escalão D — 15%.
Which escalão a medicine falls into is decided not by its name but by its pharmacotherapeutic group — the list of groups is annexed to Portaria n.º 195-D/2015. That's why two medicines from the same pharmacy shelf can have different shares.
What this looks like in money. Ben-u-ron 1000 mg — paracetamol, the very same — costs €3.09, reimbursement 37%, about two euros out of your pocket. Eutirox 0.025 mg for the thyroid — €2.12 at 69%, so a little over sixty cents. Ebymect for diabetes — €44.17 at 90%, about four and a half euros of your own. This isn't “cheap across the board”: a medicine without reimbursement costs what it costs, and a hundred euros a pack here is the same hundred as anywhere else.
And one more subtlety that people argue about in the chats. If a medicine has a homogeneous group (grupo homogéneo — the same substance, form, strength and route of administration, and at least one generic on sale), the share is calculated not from the price of your pack but from the group's reference price (article 36). If you take a medicine dearer than the reference price, you pay the whole difference yourself.
“depends on the medicine, there are some where the discount's small or there isn't one at all and not all drugs have a generic”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkschoolinportugal03.11.2025
“I take the original pantoc 40, on prescription it comes to 19€ for 56 tablets, without a prescription 22 or 23 € There's a small discount on it”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto06.03.2025
They pay for the diagnosis, not the medicine: the semaglutide story
This is the main thing to take away from this page. Besides the four general escalões there are exceptional regimes — as of 18 September 2026 there are thirty-four of them, and they are set up not for medicines but for illnesses: diabetes, psoriasis, ichthyosis, chronic pain, fertility treatment and so on. Each has its own rate and its own conditions, and the prescription must carry a direct reference to the regulation that set the regime up.
Let's take semaglutide as an example — the very substance in Ozempic and Wegovy that thousands of people were asking about in September 2026.
Under the general rules the state pays nothing for Ozempic: in the INFARMED database all three of its strengths show 0% reimbursement, and the price is €105.36. But on 10 April 2025 Portaria n.º 170/2025/1 came out, and under its article 4 medicines in the GLP-1 analogue class are reimbursed at 90% (escalão A) — on one condition: they are prescribed to an SNS patient with a recorded diagnosis of diabetes mellitus. INFARMED's dedicated page lists nine of these medicines: Liraglutido Zentiva, Ozempic in three strengths, Rybelsus in three, Trulicity and Victoza. All nine get 90%.
So one and the same box costs a person either about €10.54 or €105.36 — and the ninety-five-euro difference is made not by the pharmacy but by a line on the prescription.
Next, what the chats get wrong. Wegovy (the same semaglutide, but approved for weight loss) isn't on this list: reimbursement 0%, price €153.08. Mounjaro (tirzepatide) — also zero, €337.63 for 10 mg and €430.46 for 12.5 mg. Both Wegovy and Mounjaro are dispensed only on prescription: in the INFARMED database both are marked MSRM. The story that “since there's no discount, you don't need a prescription” is wrong — these are two different things, and a pharmacy that sells them without a prescription is breaking the rules.
And finally, something few people know: under article 5 of the same portaria, not just any doctor may prescribe these medicines under the special regime, only an endocrinology and nutrition specialist, an internal medicine specialist, a paediatrician or a family doctor. A prescription from a cosmetologist or a doctor of another speciality won't get you ninety percent.
“I think they write those letters by the book, that it's strictly on a doctor's orders, you need a consultation, and then at the consultation itself they give you the referral. They push up the average bill with consultations. There's no penalty for them in the law for issuing a referral for this testing.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal21.08.2026
“Mounjaro at the pharmacy without a prescription, since there's no discount on it with a prescription anyway. Just say you've used it before”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkRussosEmPortugal06.07.2025
Pensioners get more paid — but income is counted per household
Pensioners have their own regime, and it is added on top of the ordinary one (paragraphs 3 and 4 of article 35 of Decreto-Lei n.º 118/2026):
— 5 percentage points are added to escalão A — making 95%; — 15 are added to escalões B, C and D — making 84%, 52% and 30%; — and for medicines priced no higher than the fifth-cheapest price in their homogeneous group, 95% is paid in any escalão. INFARMED recalculates this fifth price every quarter.
The law sets the income threshold like this: no more than 14 times the minimum wage in force in the previous calendar year — or 14 IAS, if that is higher. The minimum wage in 2025 was €870, so for 2026 that's €12,180 a year. But it's not personal income that counts, it's household income divided by the number of household members (paragraph 6). This works both ways: a pension shared with a non-working spouse is split in half, while a pensioner living with children who earn may not get under the threshold.
The entitlement is confirmed by a document from a state service, after which the doctor puts the letter “R” on the prescription. It doesn't switch on by itself.
Generic or brand: you choose, and the pharmacy must offer the cheap one
A generic (medicamento genérico) is a medicine with the same active substance in the same amount and in the same form, whose equivalence to the original has been proven by trials (Decreto-Lei n.º 176/2006, article 3). Its box carries the letters MG. It isn't “a cheaper fake” or “an Indian knock-off”: a generic goes through the same INFARMED registration as the original.
The law here is on the buyer's side, and three rules are worth knowing by heart (article 17 of Portaria n.º 224/2015 and article 120-A of Decreto-Lei n.º 176/2006):
— the pharmacist must tell you the cheapest medicine that fits the prescription; — the pharmacy must keep in stock at least three of the five cheapest in each homogeneous group; — the pharmacy must dispense the cheapest of them unless you've chosen another.
You always have the right to choose any medicine with the same substance, form and strength, except in two cases: there's simply no generic for that substance, or the doctor has justified in writing why it can't be substituted — and they may do so on only two grounds: a narrow therapeutic window, or a previous adverse reaction that they reported to INFARMED (article 6).
In practice it looks like this: at the pharmacy they ask “genérico ou de marca?” — and the answer is yours. If you take a dearer one, they'll ask you for the right-of-choice code from your slip.
“We buy a lot of prescription medicines here. If you have a residence permit and a permanent utente, medicines in Portugal are VERY cheap, literally a few euros. Also at the pharmacy there's always a choice of Original or Generic (always made in Portugal or the EU, not in some India like it would be in Russia). And my husband has his own form of entertainment - checking what we paid on prescription in Portugal against the prices in online pharmacies in Russia, it's always several times more expensive there... Or that medicine isn't even sold in Russia any more..”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkschoolinportugal02.11.2025
How to find the local equivalent of a medicine you're used to
The familiar name from Moscow, Kyiv or Almaty usually means nothing here: the same substance has its own trade names in every country. But the active substance is the same the world over, and that's what the conversation needs to be about.
What to do, step by step:
1. Find the active substance on your pack — it's written in small print under the name, usually in Latin script or in English. No-Spa is drotaverine, Omez is omeprazole, Nurofen is ibuprofen. 2. Type that word into the INFARMED database in the “Substância Ativa/DCI” field and see what is sold in Portugal under that substance. 3. If the substance isn't available here at all — that happens too — go to a doctor and ask them to find a replacement by action, not by name.
A separate point about prescriptions from home: when a doctor rewrites your treatment the Portuguese way, they need not the name of the drug but the substance and the dose. That's what you should come with — then the conversation takes a minute.
The pharmacist is also an option, and not a bad one: by law they may choose and recommend non-prescription medicines. But keep the limit in mind: they can't replace a prescription medicine with a different substance — that's a job for the doctor.
“My Ukrainian prescriptions were renewed both at the urgência and by my family doctor, no questions asked. They just asked me to give not the name of the medicine but the name of the active substance and the dose”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatleiria17.06.2026
“Show the drug at the pharmacy, say you need an equivalent, the pharmacists will look at the ingredients and find one.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkleft4portugal17.07.2024
“All the equivalents are here, you just haven't figured it out yet, at my nearest pharmacy there's a Russian-speaking woman who finds you all the ordinary stuff that's sold without a prescription, Buscopan instead of No-Spa for example. And with doctors' prescriptions even more so. It's just that some things here cost pennies, like some Chlorhexidine, and sometimes it's the other way round.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkschoolinportugal02.11.2025
What's sold without a prescription, and where besides the pharmacy
Medicines are split in two (article 113 of Decreto-Lei n.º 176/2006): MSRM — prescription-only, and MNSRM — non-prescription. This is decided not by the pharmacy or the pharmacist but by INFARMED when the medicine is registered, and every pack has its own classification.
A clear example from one shelf: Ben-u-ron 500 mg — no prescription needed, the price is free, no reimbursement. The same Ben-u-ron 1000 mg — prescription-only, price €3.09, reimbursement 37%. One name, one substance, different strengths — and different rules. Folic acid works the same way: a small dose is sold as a supplement, a large one is already a medicine and needs a prescription.
By law non-prescription medicines are not reimbursed (paragraph 2 of article 115) — you pay the full price for them, and a prescription doesn't get you a discount. Hence the frequent puzzlement: “the doctor prescribed it, but there's no discount”. And there won't be one.
Non-prescription medicines aren't sold only in pharmacies: a medicines corner in a supermarket or in a chain like Wells is an LVMNSRM, a point of sale registered with INFARMED. There must be a pharmacist or a pharmacy technician there too. What you can't buy there: anything prescription-only.
What to do if the pharmacist says no. That's their right and their responsibility: a licence is worth more than one sale. Going round the neighbouring pharmacies looking for an accommodating one is a bad idea. It's quicker to book a paid online consultation and get a proper prescription in the system — with reimbursement too, if you're entitled to it.
A word about the internet. Pharmacies may deliver to your home and sell through a website, but since 2015 a legitimate website must display the common European logo, and clicking it takes you to the list of authorised sellers. Prescription medicines will only be delivered on prescription. INFARMED explicitly calls everything sold outside this system a source of fakes.
“All medicines are prescription only. Without one - food supplements, vitamins, paracetamol, ibuprofen and stuff for allergies/worms) And, apparently, to get the discount the prescription has to be from a state doctor. I.e. not asking local doctors online to transfer your Russian prescription over here, but actually going to the doctor at the health centre...”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkru_Portugal_pt23.09.2025
“You just got that kind of pharmacist! Another one would have sold it. There's folic acid as a medicine - it's more expensive, but usually there's stricter control over how it's made, it's been through trials and so on. And there's folic acid as a supplement, that's sold without a prescription.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal26.06.2025
“Alexandra. I also ran out of my stock of Citramon once, I went to the pharmacy, explained that only these tablets help with my headaches, the pharmacist looked at the ingredients and suggested ben-u-ron com cafeina, Citramon has caffeine too, they work just as well, you can buy them anywhere, not only at the pharmacy, in any supermarket that has a loja bem estar, give them a try, maybe they'll help you too.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkRussosEmPortugal15.02.2024
You can find out the price and the rules before going to the pharmacy
INFARMED has an open database of every medicine in the country — Infomed. As of 18 September 2026 it holds 1,695 active substances, 10,445 medicines and 12,651 packs, and it is updated daily.
You can search by name or by active substance. For every pack you can see everything discussed above:
— Classificação Quanto à Dispensa — MSRM or MNSRM, that is, whether you need a prescription; — Comparticipação — the reimbursement percentage under the general rules; — PVP — the pharmacy price; if it says “N/A”, the price is free and varies from pharmacy to pharmacy; — Grupo Homogéneo — whether there's a homogeneous group, that is, whether there'll be a choice of generics; — Genérico — whether it's a generic or the original; — Classificação Farmacoterapêutica — the very group that determines the escalão.
This is most useful not after the pharmacy but before: you've looked up the price, so you know what to expect at the till and will notice if the figure doesn't match. Expensive medicines are especially worth checking: the price in the database is the official one, and the pharmacy may not charge more than it.
An important caveat: the “Comparticipação” field shows the general rules. Exceptional regimes for illnesses aren't visible in it — which is why it looks as if Ozempic isn't reimbursed at all. Look up the rate for your regime on INFARMED's page for that illness.
“whatever I got at the pharmacy with the little sticker from the SNS doctor, the pharmacist always said ‘there's no discount on this drug’ And on this prescription the doc either forgot or couldn't be bothered to stick the sticker on, I didn't even notice. I'll ask next time.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal27.12.2023
Pharmacies at night, on Sundays and on public holidays
Pharmacy opening hours are set by regulation, not by each pharmacy as it pleases (Portaria n.º 277/2012). An ordinary pharmacy works at least 44 hours a week and must be open Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 13:00 and from 15:00 to 19:00, and on Saturday from 10:00 to 13:00. A break in the middle of the day is the norm, not a fluke.
At night, at weekends and on public holidays the duty pharmacies — farmácias de serviço — are open. The duty rota for the following year is approved by the regional health administration by 30 November, and it must be displayed prominently in every pharmacy — that's the notice on the door. The same rota is published by INFARMED and the administration on their websites, where you can look it up by municipality.
Two things worth knowing in advance:
— a 24-hour pharmacy may lock its door and serve through a hatch — knock, that's the normal procedure, not “closed”; — a duty pharmacy may charge up to €2.50 on top of the price per person. But not always: if the prescription was issued today or yesterday, there should be no surcharge.
And a realistic word on expectations: a duty pharmacy is a pharmacy, not a warehouse. A rare medicine may simply not be there at night, and that's quite normal.
“If you need it right now, you need to find a duty pharmacy You can do it online somehow, but generally on the doors of all the pharmacies in the area there's a duty rota it looks roughly like this”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatlisboa24.08.2024
“There are duty pharmacies. In tourist areas they definitely should be open at weekends in my area they are”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkchatporto07.10.2024
Your own medicines from home, and a prescription issued elsewhere
You can bring a supply of your own medicines for personal use, and at borders within the European Union nobody usually takes any interest. There's one sensible precaution: pack them with the prescription or the doctor's instructions, especially if they're injections, ampoules or something strong. The paper explains why you've got a box of needles.
Now the prescription itself. There's a line here that hardly anyone knows about.
A prescription from an EU country is recognised here. Under article 27 of Lei n.º 52/2014 such a prescription is valid in Portugal if the medicine is authorised for sale here and the prescription contains the full set of details: the patient's name and date of birth, the date and signature, the doctor's full name without abbreviations, their qualification, direct contact details with the international dialling code and an address including the name of the country, and the medicine itself named by its active substance with form, quantity and strength. Two limits: this doesn't work for narcotic and psychotropic drugs, and the pharmacist may refuse if they doubt it's genuine or can't make out what's written.
A prescription from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan or Belarus doesn't fall under this procedure at all. Whether they'll sell you something on it is up to the individual pharmacist, not a rule; there will be no reimbursement on it in any case, because reimbursement lives inside the Portuguese prescription system.
What people who have lived here a long time do: they go to their family doctor or to a paid online consultation with their old prescription and ask for the treatment to be rewritten as a local prescription — by active substance and dose. After that the prescription lasts a year and the matter is settled. How much such a consultation costs and how private healthcare works is covered in the guide Private insurance and paid healthcare: how much an appointment costs.
“We bring all sorts of medicines from Russia all the time (haven't brought ozempic). Never had any questions. If it's for yourself and you have a prescription, there shouldn't be any problems bringing it in”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkRussosEmPortugal04.03.2026
“I always bring whatever I might need urgently from Ukraine, because here you can't buy it without a prescription.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkberemennost_portugal24.10.2025
“At the very least you'll have to talk them into it. In Portugal lots of prescription drugs are subsidised and they're unlikely to sell them to you on a Russian prescription.”
Translated from Russian; the original is at the linkPortugal 🇵🇹 TravelAsk chat04.04.2026
What to bring
- Prescription number and access and dispensing code — from the slip, the SMS or the SNS 24 app
- Right-of-choice code — if you want to take something other than what the pharmacy offers
- Citizen card or título de residência — instead of the number and code, you can get into the prescription with the card
- Número de utente — without it there's no reimbursement
- Passport — when buying narcotic and psychotropic drugs, foreigners are recorded by their passport
- Document confirming your right to the pensioners' regime — if you have it; on the strength of it the doctor puts the letter “R” on the prescription
- Old pack or prescription from home — take them to the doctor to get a local prescription
Where people most often trip up
- A prescription is valid for 12 months, not a month; 30 days only for a handwritten one and a short course
- The period is counted from the day after it is issued, not from the day of the appointment
- Without the access code the pharmacy can't get into the prescription — “the doctor prescribed it” doesn't work
- The SMS goes to the number recorded in the SNS system; it's more reliable to check the prescription in your SNS 24 personal area
- Lines of one prescription can be collected at different pharmacies and at different times
- Since 4 July 2026 no more than two months of treatment is dispensed at a time; more in case of loss, theft or a long stay abroad
- Reimbursement comes from the utente number on the prescription, not from a state clinic: a private doctor issues prescriptions with reimbursement just the same
- A temporary utente number gives no right to reimbursement — once you have your residence permit, your details are updated at the centro de saúde
- Reimbursement is calculated from the reference price of the homogeneous group; you pay any difference above it in full
- For GLP-1 analogues, the 90% comes from a “diabetes” diagnosis on the prescription: without it Ozempic costs €105.36, with it about €10.54
- Wegovy and Mounjaro aren't reimbursed at all, but are dispensed strictly on prescription — these are two different things
- Under the special diabetes regime, only an endocrinologist, an internal medicine specialist, a paediatrician or a family doctor can prescribe
- The pensioners' income threshold is counted per household: income is divided by the number of members
- The pharmacy must name and dispense the cheapest suitable medicine unless you've chosen another
- Non-prescription medicines aren't reimbursed — a prescription for them gives no discount
- The same name in different strengths can be both prescription-only and non-prescription: Ben-u-ron 500 and 1000 mg
- A duty pharmacy may charge up to €2.50 on top of the price, but not for a prescription issued today or yesterday
- A 24-hour pharmacy serves through a hatch with the door locked — that's the normal procedure
- A prescription from an EU country is recognised if it has the full set of details; a prescription from Russia or Ukraine isn't covered by this procedure
- A legitimate online pharmacy displays the common European logo with a link to the list of authorised sellers
How it went for people
Ran out of Citramon — the pharmacist found a substitute by its ingredients
Someone ran out of the Citramon they had brought from home, and it was the only thing that helped their headaches. They explained this at the pharmacy in their own words; the pharmacist looked at the ingredients, saw caffeine there and suggested Ben-u-ron com cafeína — paracetamol with caffeine, which is sold both at the pharmacy and in the medicines corner of a supermarket. It worked just as well. The case shows the procedure that works: the conversation is about the ingredients, not the name, and for non-prescription medicines that's enough. February 2024.
Six months until an appointment — and €50 for one prescription
Someone booked an appointment with a GP in February to get a prescription for their tablets, and was given a slot in May. Waiting three months wasn't an option, so they had to book a paid online consultation for €50 — the doctor was ten minutes late out of fifteen and said nothing much, but did write the prescription. That's the price worth knowing about in advance: the prescription itself is free in the system, but you pay for the appointment at which it's written. On the plus side, once written the prescription lasts a year. March 2026.
Checking prices out of habit — and an unexpected result
A family buys a lot of prescription medicines here and says that with a residence permit and a permanent utente number it comes to a few euros a pack; every time, the pharmacy asks whether they want the original or a generic. The husband has a habit of checking what the same thing would have cost at an online pharmacy back home: it's always several times more expensive there, and some of the medicines aren't even sold any more. The story is useful because it shows why it's worth bothering with a utente number and a prescription in the system at all. November 2025.
Retold in our own words from messages in open chats. The link leads to the full original message.