Last year, more pharmacies in Germany than ever before had to close. The number of small pharmacies has fallen below the 10,000 mark for the first time.
The number of pharmacies in Germany fell to a low last year. As the Federal Association of German Pharmacists Associations (ABDA) announced, there were 17,571 pharmacies nationwide at the end of last year – almost 500 fewer than a year earlier. According to the ABDA, it is the “largest annual loss of pharmacies in the history of the Federal Republic”.
For 559 closures, there were just 62 new openings in 2023. For the first time, the number of individual pharmacies without branch structures fell below the 10,000 mark (9,645). With 21 pharmacies per 100,000 inhabitants, Germany’s pharmacy density is below the European average of 32 pharmacies. Pharmacies ensure the supply of medicines close to home for the entire population and are an “indispensable part of every local infrastructure,” explained the association.
Fees have not been adjusted for more than ten years
Many owners would still have to give up because their economic basis would disappear. The pharmacy fee has not been adjusted for more than ten years and has recently even been cut again – although in the same period the consumer price index rose by 38 percent and the costs in pharmacies even rose by 60 percent, said ABDA President Gabriele Regina Overwiening.
Overwiening called on politicians to present a pharmacy rescue law. This should include, among other things, an immediate adjustment of the pharmacies’ fees. In the future, the fee will have to be “automatically adjusted to economic developments,” explains the association.