According to the Central Statistical Office (GUS), medications used to treat gastrointestinal and metabolic disorders—including weight-loss aids—have dominated the Polish prescription drug market for the second consecutive year. In 2025, they accounted for nearly a quarter of total sales value, surpassing cardiovascular drugs, which had been the market leaders for years.
Prescription Drug Sales Rankings for 2025. What About Obesity Medications?
Published June 25, 2026 09:49
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According to the latest data from the Central Statistical Office, medications used to treat gastrointestinal and metabolic disorders accounted for the largest share of total prescription drug sales in 2025. This category accounted for 24.8 percent of the total value of prescription drug sales. This is the second year in a row that this group has ranked first among all therapeutic categories. Just a few years ago, drugs used to treat cardiovascular diseases were still the leaders.
Dynamic growth since 2022
Data from the Central Statistical Office (GUS) show that the importance of metabolism-related drugs is steadily increasing. In 2022, their share of sales value was 17.5 percent. A year later, it rose to 18.9 percent; in 2024, it reached 21.4 percent; and by 2025, it had already approached one-quarter of the entire market.
This group includes, among others, medications used to treat diabetes and metabolic disorders, as well as products that help reduce excess weight and obesity. It is precisely this growing interest in modern metabolic therapies that is one of the factors driving the rapid growth in sales in this category.
Cardiology Remains on the Podium
The second-largest group consists of cardiovascular drugs. They accounted for 17.7 percent of the value of prescription drug sales. Although cardiovascular diseases remain one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in Poland, in terms of sales value, cardiovascular drugs were surpassed by metabolic drugs as early as 2024 and retained their second-place position in 2025 as well.
The Importance of Antiinfective Drugs Is Growing
The biggest change in the drug sales rankings in 2025 was the rise in the importance of drugs used to treat infections. The share of anti-infective drugs rose from 5.5 percent in 2024 to 7.2 percent a year later. This allowed the group to move up from seventh to fifth place in the ranking of the most important therapeutic categories.
Medications used to treat infections thus surpassed those used to treat diseases of the blood and the hematopoietic system, as well as medications used to treat disorders of the genitourinary and endocrine systems.
Sales of prescription drugs in Poland reached 33.4 billion PLN in 2025. Compared to the previous year, this represents a 13.1 percent increase, despite only a slight rise in the number of prescriptions filled.
Source: GUS
