Telepharmazie

Telepharmazie describes pharmaceutical advice or supervision delivered remotely rather than in person, and it is discussed widely, though it is also regularly and wrongly attributed to the ApoVWG.

The word does not appear anywhere in the statute, and there is no general authorisation for remotely supervised pharmacies or video-supervised branches. § 3 Apothekenbetriebsordnung states the opposite, which is that a pharmacy may only be open and operating with a pharmacist or an authorised deputy present.

One narrow exception exists under the § 29 Apothekengesetz trial. A pharmacy leader may be absent for up to 20 days a year and for no more than 10 consecutive days, with an experienced pharmazeutisch-technische Assistentin maintaining operations. The conditions attached to that absence are strict:

• The absence is permitted only on individual application by the pharmacy concerned.
• No other pharmacy may be located within 6 kilometres of that pharmacy.
• The deputising person must have worked unsupervised in that pharmacy for at least three years.
• The whole trial applies only until 31 December 2031.
• A Hauptapotheke is excluded from the arrangement entirely.
• Pharmacies doing patient-individual Verblisterung or parenteral preparation are also excluded.

The far-reaching version that drew heavy criticism in December 2025 belonged to the cabinet draft and did not become part of the law. What the reform does allow instead is the Zweigapotheke in genuinely remote locations.