Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva announced on Thursday (17) that the country's public health system, the SUS, will hand out weight-loss injection pens free of charge to treat obesity. Distribution will require a medical prescription and will follow clinical criteria set by the Health Ministry. He made the announcement during a visit to drugmaker Eurofarma's new industrial complex in Montes Claros, in the state of Minas Gerais, alongside Health Minister Alexandre Padilha.
According to the magazine Veja, no start date was announced: the ministry still has to finish the clinical protocol and the eligibility rules. Lula summed up the plan in his speech at the plant:
"This little pen will be used to care for people with obesity for free, when a doctor determines that a man or a woman has a health problem."
Padilha said the priority will be patients with the most to gain from treatment: people with severe obesity, related diseases or an indication for bariatric surgery. "We want this medication in the SUS, as a right. We will have the protocol ready to bring it into the SUS across the whole country responsibly," he said. No obesity drug is distributed by the public network today, as a g1 report in August showed; the system's main offer is bariatric surgery, with waiting lists that can stretch for years.
Why the promise became possible now
The obstacle has always been cost. In 2025, Conitec, the commission that decides which treatments the public system covers, rejected requests to include semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, and liraglutide (Saxenda, Victoza), citing an estimated budget impact above 8 billion reais. The semaglutide patent expired in March, and cheaper Brazilian versions followed. Endocrinologist Maria Edna de Melo, of the University of São Paulo's Hospital das Clínicas and a member of the obesity study group Abeso, estimates the price has fallen from about 1,400 reais to roughly 330 reais in promotional offers. In June, Novo Nordisk filed a new request with Conitec, offering a 59% discount on the reference price and limiting access to patients over 45 without diabetes who have severe obesity and a history of heart attack. The plant Lula visited produces Poviztra, Eurofarma's semaglutide made in partnership with Novo Nordisk, launched in October 2025 at prices between 400 and 1,100 reais, according to Veja.
Since late June the ministry has also been running the Real-Bari study at a hospital in Porto Alegre: 250 patients with severe obesity on the waiting list for bariatric surgery receive the pens at no cost. The goal, according to the ministry, is to assess how the therapy fits the reality of the SUS and what it costs.
Election backdrop and what patients can do
Obesity affects 25.7% of Brazilian adults, up from 11.8% in 2006, according to Vigitel, a Health Ministry survey. The announcement comes 17 days before the first round of Brazil's presidential election. Presidential candidate Ronaldo Caiado said, according to the news site UOL, that the promise has an "appearance of populism". Lula himself, according to Poder360, urged restraint in distribution, said doctors "cannot go around prescribing pens left and right", warned against candidates "throwing pens at people" for political gain, and noted that some cases call for changes in diet rather than medication.
In practice, nothing changes yet at public clinics. Until the protocol is published, the pens remain available only in the private market, with a prescription and medical follow-up. People living with obesity can seek care at their neighborhood public clinic and, in severe cases, ask about evaluation for bariatric surgery. Semaglutide requires prescription and monitoring for side effects, and should not be taken on one's own.