In Portugal, in recent days, nothing else has been talked about. The story is that of an endocrinologist who ended up in handcuffs because she allegedly prescribed drugs such as Ozempic, Victoza and Trulicity to people who were not diabetics, but simply wanted to lose weight.
The investigators explained that the prescriptions would have been justified by invented diagnoses, entered into the computer system with the certainty of those who have been doing it for a long time. According to the police, the purpose was not a health treatment: it was weight loss.
The news shocked half the country, especially after it was leaked from the Judicial Police that Dr. Graça Vargas had signed more than 65 thousand prescriptions for 1,914 people. A number that alone is enough to understand the significance of the story.
The investigators’ suspicion is that behind that long trail of prescriptions there was a real system: patients who presented themselves as diabetics, prescriptions that were accepted without batting an eyelid and reimbursements that the State provided with the trust of those who believe in their health service.
The “Obélix” operation and the background to the alleged fraudulent system
PJ agents have been reconstructing the suspects’ movements for months. They searched homes, professional offices, private clinics and even companies with offices that, according to the police, existed only on paper.
The scene, described by investigators, resembles a domino falling one piece after another: a doctor, a second doctor, a lawyer and a private clinic, all involved in what appears to be a well-oiled network.
During the investigations, a particularly delicate aspect also emerged: the drugs in question can be reimbursed up to 95% by the health service, but only if prescribed to patients with type 2 diabetes. It was enough to fake that diagnosis to send the State a mountain of reimbursement requests. The result is damage estimated at around three million euros.
According to police reconstructions, many of the patients arrived at the clinic thanks to word of mouth. People were reporting “remarkable” weight loss results, and so the ring would grow, eventually attracting the attention of tax authorities, who were already engaged in another related investigation.
A circle which, once closed, led to the arrest of Dr. Vargas, who is now awaiting the decision on precautionary measures.
In the meantime, the Medical Association has started disciplinary proceedings and requested access to all the investigation documents. The Minister of Health preferred not to go into details, limiting herself to recalling that this is a judicial investigation still underway.
A story that tells much more than its single case
The success of drugs like Ozempic has fueled, in recent years, a huge parallel market: there are those who talk about it as a shortcut, those who see it as a dangerous do-it-yourself and those who fear that growing demand could take away essential medicines from people who really need them.
The Portuguese case, told as it emerged from the investigations, then becomes more than a simple judicial chronicle. It becomes the portrait of a drug created for a serious illness and ended up, more and more often, in hands for which it was not intended. Now justice will take its course. But in the meantime, a simple and inevitable question remains: how much hunger for weight loss are we willing to justify, before real health stops being the priority?
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