Heilmittelwerbegesetz

The Heilmittelwerbegesetz, almost always shortened to HWG, sets the boundaries for advertising medicines, medical devices and health services in Germany, and any pharmacy marketing a diagnostics offering is inside its scope.

What the HWG permits is factual information about the service itself:

• What the service is and which markers it measures can be described plainly.
• How the sample is taken and who analyses it can be stated openly.
• What the service costs and how long the result takes can both be given.

What the HWG prohibits is the language that marketing uses first:

• A Heilversprechen is banned, meaning a promise that something will cure or prevent an illness.
• Guarantees of success or of a particular result are not permitted.
• Statements that mislead are prohibited, including any implication that a measured value amounts to a diagnosis.
• Endorsements and testimonials are tightly restricted, so a customer story is no safe substitute for a factual claim.

Diagnostics copy is unusually exposed here, because a number looks like proof. A phrase such as recognising illnesses early claims more than a pharmacy can support, since a venöse Blutentnahme or a Point-of-Care-Test produces values and no conclusion about them. Interpreting those values against a Referenzbereich is a medical judgement the pharmacy is not making.

A safe formulation describes the measurement and leaves the conclusion open. Saying which values are measured, that they are compared with the analysing laboratory's reference range, and that anything unclear belongs with a physician, stays factual while telling the customer what the service offers.

Price transparency belongs alongside this, because an offering sold as an apothekenübliche Dienstleistung should state the total price in writing before the service, which is good practice under the HWG and under general price law alike.