IEGUS Study: Online pharmacies contribute to a comprehensive and cost-efficient supply of medicines in Germany
Brussels, 15 January 2025 - A qualitative and quantitative expert opinion on behalf of the European Association of E-Pharmacies (EAEP) brings new evidence that online pharmacies are an established pillar of the German pharmaceutical supply system and will become even more so in the future.
This expert opinion was fully supported by EAEP members apo.com Group, Atida, DocMorris and Redcare Pharmacy (represented by Shop Apotheke and Europa Apotheek), which together achieved a market share of around 58.1% for OTC packages sold by mail order in and to Germany in 2023. To date, the potential of online pharmacies for the supply of medicines in Germany had only been given limited consideration in political, economic and scientific discourse.
Based on qualitative literature research and quantitative data analysis, the report by the IEGUS research institute has examined and confirmed three core assumptions:
- Online pharmacies contribute to a comprehensive and cost-efficient supply of medicines in Germany, particularly in areas with medium population density and rural areas. In total, the EAEP members included in the analysis alone supplied the German population with 95 million medicine packages in 2023.
- In Germany, online pharmacies are the solution for a sustainable, nationwide supply of medicines. The continuous decline of brick-and-mortar pharmacies is due to an extremely complex interplay of several factors.
- Online pharmacies as well as telemedicine, telepharmacy, electronic prescriptions and other digital healthcare solutions have enormous potential to ensure and optimise the supply of medicines to the population.
EAEP President Walter Hess states: “Digitalisation of healthcare has not just arrived in Germany as indicated by the data, it’s going to be the game changer to improve the health of each and every patient in the country.”
With a view to the data analysis, the study was based on empirical findings to determine the significance and potential of online pharmacies for the supply of medicines to the German population. To this end, drug deliveries invoiced by online pharmacies between 2019 to 2023 were examined in terms of their extent, density and product range structure. The report’s data reflects the time before the introduction of e-prescriptions and eHealth CardLink in Germany. However, due to the limited number of pharmacies analysed, it represents only a section of the German medicine supply by domestic and EU-based online pharmacies.
The increasing supply volume, even beyond the pandemic period, indicates a long-term development towards the digital supply of medicines. This is plausible in light of current trends: the population’s growing familiarity with digital platforms and e-commerce suggests that the inhibition threshold for buying medicines online will also decrease in future. In addition, more digitally savvy customers are increasingly moving into age groups with a greater need for medicines.
EAEP Vice-President Olaf Heinrich comments: “I’m very happy with this expert opinion highlighting for the very first time the importance of online pharmacies throughout Germany. To me, this result is a clear indicator that online pharmacies are scientifically confirmed as an essential pillar of the German healthcare system”.
These new, evidence-based findings should now be taken as an opportunity to establish equal regulatory treatment of online pharmacies in Germany and to strengthen telepharmaceutical services in the interests of patients.
Read the executive summary in English here: https://www.eaep.com/uploads/executive-summary-iegus-report-on-the-role-of-online-pharmacies-on-the-supply-of-pharmaceuticals-in-germany.pdf?_cchid=1ebaf82a6bc8e1da2a60d97a963c3c2e
Read the full IEGUS study here (in German only): https://www.eaep.com/uploads/iegus-gutachten-die-rolle-der-online-apotheken-in-der-deutschen-arzneimittelversorgung.pdf?_cchid=78e84aba4a466f4a67323b968334e117
Profile: The European Association of E-Pharmacies (EAEP) represents the voice of e-pharmacies on the European continent. The EAEP promotes its interests mainly with political stakeholders, regional and business actors, with the ultimate aim to improve the health of Europe’s citizens and strengthen the European healthcare system. E-pharmacies have digitalised the classical pharmacy, and therefore act at the crossroads of digitalisation, healthcare, e-commerce and sustainability. As pioneers in providing digital solutions and our innovative and secure processes in dealing with health data, offering medicinal products and digital healthcare service while complying with national and EU law, the EAEP members continuously seek for ways to enhance the quality, safety and efficiency of healthcare for Europeans.
