Public hospitals spent over 1.116 million euros on medicines in the first half of the year

Public hospitals spent more than 1,116 million euros on medicines in the first half of the year, 12.5% ​​more than in the same period last year, when these costs reached their highest level in the last decade.

Hospitals spent 126.5 million euros more between January and June this year than in the same period last year, according to Infarmed data published on Tuesday.

Last year, public hospitals spent 1.959 million euros (EUR), the highest figure in a decade.

The Medicines Market Monitoring Report for the Hospital Environment indicates that by service area, external consulting and products transferred abroad accounted for the largest share of expenditure (43.9%), amounting to over €490 million, up 11.6% from the same period last year.

This is followed by day hospitalization with drug costs of more than 424 million euros (+14.5%), hospitalization – more than 96 million euros (+3.1%) and operating room – more than 17 million euros (+23%).

The area of ​​provision where drug costs increased the most was primary health care, where costs increased by more than 300%, exceeding 15 million euros.

Among health institutions, the most money on medicines in the first half of the year was spent by the local health department of Santa Maria (more than 133 million euros), followed by ULS of São José with 99.2 million euros, ULS of Coimbra (98.7 euros) and ULS of São João (83.9 euros).

In terms of therapeutic area, oncology has the largest weight (33%) with expenses of more than 368 million euros, which is 16.6% (plus 52.5 million euros) more than in the first half of last year, followed by the HIV area with more than 121 million euros (+11.9%, +13 million euros).

By therapeutic class, the highest value was for immunomodulatory drugs that act on the immune system (EUR 389.8 million), followed by cytotoxic drugs used in oncology to destroy tumor cells (EUR 137.2 million).

In terms of active substance, the biggest increase in hospital spending was for pembrolizumab, an antibody used in cancer immunotherapy, which rose 42% in the first half of the year to more than €52 million. In primary care, it was the meningococcal vaccine, which soared 319.4% to more than €3.9 million.

The number of packages consumed in SNS departments shows an upward trend: in the first six months of the year it increased by 9.3%, which corresponds to the number of packages of drugs dispensed on the reimbursed outpatient services market (+3.6%).

Infarmed data also shows that the use of biosimilars in hospitals reached 77.5% in the first half of the year, the highest value recorded in 2024. The active substances Filgrastim, Infliximab and Bevacizumab took the top three, achieving a use rate above 90%.