The Bundeskartellamt has cleared under merger control the planned launch of a joint venture by the Phoenix Group subsidiary ADG Apotheken-Dienstleistungsgesellschaft mbH, Mannheim, and the pharmacy services provider Noventi Health SE, Munich.

The joint venture is intended to operate an extensive digital platform for health services and products, which, apart from the purchase and reservation of prescription-only and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals from a pharmacy, is also to enable other functions in the medium term such as e.g. online video consultations with a doctor.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: “The introduction of the electronic prescription next year will significantly boost innovation in the sale of pharmaceuticals. Different players are currently developing digital offers in this area. In this sensitive market phase we want to make sure that markets remain open and unilateral developments do not occur early on. In particular, it is important for us that the brick-and-mortar pharmacies can be simultaneously connected to several platforms and switch between different offers. Lastly, they should have the possibility to operate their own joint platforms.”

Phoenix is one of the most important pharmaceutical wholesalers active throughout Germany. Noventi is a fully owned subsidiary of the pharmacy association FSA e.V. and offers sector-specific software and billing services for pharmacies and other health service providers.

Prior to the merger Phoenix and Noventi already offered the apps “deine Apotheke” and “callmyApo” via which patients can reserve pharmaceuticals at a pharmacy of their choice. The apps “Ihre Apotheken” of the pharmacist cooperative Noweda, Pro AvO’s “apora” and “Meine Apotheke” provide similar offers. Large mail order pharmacies like DocMorris and Shop Apotheke have long enabled the purchase of pharmaceuticals over the Internet. According to media reports, they are also planning to integrate brick-and-mortar pharmacies in their distribution systems. Ultimately, general online marketplaces can also get ready to distribute pharmaceuticals if they fulfil the necessary legal requirements.

It is too early to conclusively assess these and other pharmacy and health platforms under competition law. This will also depend on the future specific design and actual operation of the platforms. However the fact that the health service providers on the platform, i.e. the pharmacies, operate a joint platform via Noventi, does not raise any competition concerns. In fact, experiences with online marketplaces in other sectors show that it can be helpful for the suppliers of products and services to keep control of the electronic contact to their customers in their own hands to avoid dependencies.

Background:
From January 2022 it will be obligatory for doctors and dentists prescribing medicines for statutory-insured patients to use an electronic prescription (Section 360 German Social Code, Book V). Patients will be able to choose whether they wish to have the data necessary to access the electronic prescription printed out or provided electronically. Gesellschaft für Telematik (gematik) is developing and provides the components for the telematic infrastructure, which make it possible for the statutory-insured patients to access their electronic prescription (https://www.gematik.de/anwendungen/e-rezept/patienten/).