The National Authority for Medicines and Health Products (Infarmed) announced the completion of the funding process for 188 medicines within the first half of this year, including several regarded as “innovative.”
“Between January and June 2025, Infarmed finalized public funding for 51 innovative medicines, enhancing access for users of the National Health Service (SNS) to new therapeutic options,” the site states.
The same page provides additional data, such as the top five therapeutic areas of the funded medicines.
This forefront includes medicines in the fields of oncology, hematology, central nervous system, cardiovascular, and endocrinology.
In addition to the 51 innovative medicines, 41 new presentations or dosages of already funded medicines were also financed, “which allows better adaptation of treatments to the patients’ needs.”
“The 89 generic medicines and seven similar biological medicines approved ensure treatment with the same active substance as the reference medicines, at a lower cost,” the authority details.
Following this approval, the president of Infarmed, Rui Santos Ivo, noted that the “evaluation for public funding of these medicines reflects Infarmed’s commitment to continue ensuring people’s access to effective, safe, and sustainable therapies, fostering innovation and balance in the health system.”
The authority further emphasizes that these authorizations result from a “rigorous” technical-scientific assessment conducted by specialists. Quality analyses of medicine batches often lead to alerts from the authority, such as the suspension of a batch of Fluoxetine toLife 20 mg capsules on Monday, where an “analytical result above acceptable limits for an impurity” was detected.
Infarmed warns users utilizing medicines from batch no. 23KN163A not to interrupt treatment and advises them to “as soon as possible, contact their doctor so that they can assess the necessity of substitution with an alternative medication.”
This information was provided on Monday by Infarmed through an informative note published on its website. The issue concerns batch no. 23KN163A of Fluoxetine toLife 20 mg capsules, in which an “analytical result above acceptable limits for an impurity” was detected.
Notícias ao Minuto | 18:21 – 04/08/2025
Detailed information regarding the authorization and funding of medicines is available on Infomed, the national database of human-use medicines.
As noted on the Infarmed website, it is a public institute with special status, “under the law, integrated into the indirect administration of the State, endowed with administrative, financial, and patrimonial autonomy.”
In addition to monitoring the consumption and use of human-use medicines and health products, Infarmed’s duties include:
- Ensuring adequate integration and participation within the European Union system for the evaluation and supervision of human-use medicines, including coordination with the European Medicines Agency and other European institutions;
- Developing national and international cooperation activities, of a bilateral or multilateral nature, within its remit;
- Promoting and supporting, in conjunction with universities and other research and development institutions, national or foreign, the study and research in the fields of pharmaceutical sciences, biotechnology, pharmacology, pharmaco-economics, and pharmacoepidemiology;
- a) Contribute to the formulation of health policy, notably in the definition and implementation of policies for human-use medicines and health products, including medical devices and cosmetic and body hygiene products;
- Others that can be consulted here.
