Analysis
The Order of Physicians has already initiated criminal proceedings. The detainee will be present for the first judicial interrogation to apply coercive measures deemed appropriate.
An endocrinologist who has prescribed thousands of antidiabetic medications, used for weight loss, to people without diabetes, this Wednesday.
Grace Vargas would issue prescriptions for medications such as Ozempic, Victoza and Trulicity to users who wanted to lose weight, pretending they were diabeticwhich thus obtained participation from the State.
SIC commentator Adriana Cardoso explains that when a prescription is written for someone who is not diabetic “there is a fraud on the Portuguese State”.
This happens because the “the reimbursement being made at 90% of the maximum PVP value of the medicine, which is tabulated by the Portuguese health authorities, means that the Portuguese State is mistakenly contributing something that has not been evaluated and that is not even allowed to happen”.
At stake is also access to medicines for those who need them. “There are diabetics who need this type of medication, and when there is a prescription off-label of these medicines and people have access to medicines without needing them, as the contracts that are established between the medicine authority and pharmaceutical companies have a tabulated average value of these units that arrive at pharmacies, there is inefficiency and stock outages”.
“Which means that people who really need these medicines end up not having access”, adds the SIC commentator.
The Order of Physicians The detainee will be present for the first judicial interrogation to apply coercive measures deemed appropriate.
