Poland

Art. 99 Prawo farmaceutyczne, as amended effective 28 September 2023 ("Apteka dla Aptekarza 2.0"), restricts pharmacy permits to individual licensed pharmacists, general and professional partnerships where all partners are pharmacists whose sole activity is running pharmacies, and universities with pharmacy faculties. Acquiring control is barred if it would give a capital group four or more pharmacies, or if the acquirer sits on a wholesaler's board.

The President referred the amendment to the Constitutional Tribunal in October 2023 without blocking its entry into force. The outcome could not be established, and one academic source describes a further bill as not yet enacted, which conflicts with the consolidated statute text. Flagged.

e-recepta, run by CSIOZ, issues every prescription as a code sent by SMS or app, redeemable at any pharmacy nationwide. Telehealth doctors issue prescriptions after questionnaire-only teleporady for most medicines. A 2024 push by the medical chamber and Ministry to require video or in-person verification explicitly targeted opioids, benzodiazepines and medical cannabis, not GLP-1s.

The result is a crowded field of platforms bundling a 49–59 PLN doctor consultation with e-prescription issuance, after which the patient collects at any pharmacy. Because the physical medicine is collected in person, this sidesteps the mail-order ban entirely. It is the standard, legal workaround.

Poland historically ran an almost total ban on pharmacy advertising, enforced by GIF. On 19 June 2025 the CJEU ruled that ban violates EU freedom-of-establishment and services law. GIF's chief has since called the ban "fiction", administrative courts are voiding past fines, and roughly 11m PLN of penalties face refund. A parallel 2026 reform is modernising the medicinal-product advertising review toward a hybrid digital model.

Note carefully: this loosened the pharmacy advertising ban. The EU-wide prohibition on advertising prescription-only medicines to the public under Directive 2001/83 is untouched.

Ozempic is reimbursed for type 2 diabetes only, 0.25/0.5/1.0mg, 30% co-pay, requiring HbA1c ≥7.5%, BMI ≥30, at least two prior antidiabetics and high cardiovascular risk. Wegovy, Mounjaro and Saxenda have zero obesity reimbursement. Eli Lilly filed a Mounjaro reimbursement dossier with AOTMiT in early 2025; no decision was confirmed.

Indicative monthly private prices (2026): Ozempic 500–950 PLN, Wegovy 550–1,220 PLN by dose, Mounjaro 850–2,000 PLN, Rybelsus 400–900 PLN, Saxenda 600–1,300 PLN.

Poland has a large and liquid telemedicine labour market, one job board listed 6,386 open telemedycyna postings in mid-2026, and physician costs well below Western Europe. Clean per-hour or per-consult benchmarks for telehealth doctor pay could not be obtained; private rates are separately negotiated and unpublished.

The conclusion is the same as for Czechia: excellent for a telemedicine, clinical-ops or support back office, useless as a dispensing jurisdiction.