Austria

This is the finding that overturns the usual reading of Austria. §49 Abs 2 ÄrzteG, amended effective 1 January 2024, explicitly permits doctors to practise persönlich und unmittelbar, aber auch durch Anwendung von Telemedizin. Two independent legal analyses agree that the statutory permission is unconditional and applies to private Wahlarzt practice.

The in-person-first-contact rule that appears in many summaries comes from the ÖGK Gesamtvertrag, the collective billing agreement, which conditions public-insurer reimbursement on the patient already being personally known to the doctor. It is a billing-eligibility condition. No primary source was found giving it independent disciplinary force outside billing, though one legal commentary questions whether it is applied uniformly.

That is why haelsi weight and Weight Doctors can market a fully remote service with e-Rezept redemption at any Austrian pharmacy.

Under §9 and §12 Apothekengesetz the Konzession to run a public pharmacy is a personal operating right that cannot be transferred, locking ownership to an individual licensed pharmacist. Applicants must also complete a five-year post-qualification Quinquennium, and new concessions face a need test.

On mail order the position is unambiguous: online sale of prescription medicines to Austria is prohibited under §59 Abs 8 AMG, and importing from unauthorised sources separately breaches §17 Abs 1 AWEG 2010. Austrian law governs regardless of the seller’s home rules, so a medicine sold over the counter in Germany is still illegal to post into Austria if Austria classifies it prescription-only.

From about February 2026 Austrian social-insurance funds began covering Wegovy under a narrow special arrangement: adolescents aged 12 to 20 with six months of prior unsuccessful treatment, adult-equivalent BMI over 30 and at least one comorbidity, prescribed only through paediatric obesity centres; and adults who are bariatric-surgery candidates with prior failed therapy, prescribed only through ÖGAMC reference centres. Wegovy 2.4mg was cut from 333 to 282.50 euros a month and 1.7mg to 244.85 euros in the same move.

Mounjaro (all six KwikPen strengths, ATC A10BX16) entered the Red Box of the Erstattungskodex on 9 January 2026. Red Box is the transitional status for a drug newly filed for reimbursement review. It is not reimbursement: costs are covered only where no adequate alternative exists and the prescriber obtains prior chefärztliche Bewilligung case by case. In practice Mounjaro remains overwhelmingly self-pay, now formally in process.

The European Commission approved the oral Wegovy tablet EU-wide in mid-July 2026, which applies automatically in Austria. Novo Nordisk is running a staggered rollout: Germany launches 1 September 2026, and Novo Nordisk Austria explicitly stated it could not yet give an Austrian date, citing a phased approach to ensure availability in each country. There is therefore no Austrian price or reimbursement position yet.

No formal action against a named GLP-1 telehealth operator or advertiser was found in Austrian trade press or court reporting for 2025 or 2026, despite targeted searching. BASG’s only relevant activity is a 4 September 2025 public warning on the EU-wide rise in illegal and counterfeit GLP-1 products, naming no companies. Read that as an absence in the public record rather than proof that nothing has happened.