Status: 11/25/2022 11:36 am
In the first nine months of the year, the number of pharmacies in Germany continued to decline. This continues a trend that has been ongoing since 2008. The pharmacists’ associations are sounding the alarm.
The number of pharmacies in Germany continued to shrink in 2022. According to the Federal Union of German Associations of Pharmacists (ABDA), there were around a third more closures in the first nine months of the year than in the same period last year.
According to this, 285 more pharmacies were closed by the end of September than newly opened. In 2021, the number was 218 closures over the same period. According to the ABDA, there are currently 18,176 pharmacies in Germany. ABDA President Gabriele Regina Overwiening sees a reason for the ongoing wave of closures in the economic situation of many pharmacies.
“Every day they feel the effects of high inflation and energy prices. The high level of bureaucracy, the lack of young people,” all of which make it increasingly difficult to ensure the supply of medicines close to home in the future, says Overwiening.
Many challenges for pharmacies
The main problem for many pharmacies is not falling income. In 2008, when 21,602 pharmacies were open in Germany, the turnover per branch was around 1.7 million euros. By 2021, this sum had risen to around three million euros. So far, online trading in medicines has only made up a part of what is sold in local pharmacies.
The industry generated around 59 billion euros in the most recent survey year, 2020. The industry association ABDA sees a shift in business to the Internet. The market share of mail-order pharmacies for over-the-counter medicines has climbed to 16.4 percent.
Many closures due to staff shortages
Pharmacy operators are particularly worried about the lack of staff. Many pharmacies that close have not found a successor. The amount of bureaucracy has continued to grow in recent years, but not the remuneration.
In addition, the current regulations on emergency services in rural areas would be a major problem for recruiting, criticized the President of the Bavarian Chamber of Pharmacists Thomas Benkert at a meeting in Munich. According to Benkert, the distance to the nearest pharmacy with an emergency service must be increased to 30 kilometers for rural areas in order to expect fewer night and emergency services on weekends from employees.
Bankruptcy of payment service providers also continues to cause trouble
In the summer of 2020, the service provider AvP, which was responsible for billing prescriptions in around 3,000 pharmacies, went bankrupt. Presumably also because of infidelity of executives, as the “Handelsblatt” reported. Two months’ bills were not paid out to many pharmacies – this often meant a loss of six-digit sums.