"(...) For now, we still don't have a reason for greater concern, but we have to be prepared, we have to be prepared," said Ana Paula Martins to journalists at the Santo André Hospital in Leiria.

The president of the Pharmaceutical Industry Association (Apifarma), João Almeida Lopes, said that drug prices in Portugal will have to rise "sooner or later" due to inflation and political pressure, factors that tend to bring European prices closer to those in the United States, according to the newspaper Eco.

According to Eco, which cited the interview with Jornal de Negócios and Antena 1, João Almeida Lopes explained that the cost of oil, its derivatives and other materials, such as plastics, glass and aluminium, has a direct impact on medicines, and that international tariffs also contribute to price increases.

Ana Paula Martins highlighted two aspects of the interview: first, "the recognition that the impact of the international crisis, naturally, on the issue related to energy that impacts all sectors, will, sooner or later, also impact medicines."

"That was a first dimension, and one that we are naturally monitoring," the official assured, adding that the second dimension "was, precisely, that this impact, for now, is not something that is immediately on the table."