Since February this year, German on-site pharmacies have already been cooperating with the British online practice Zava (formerly DrEd) via the pharmacy-owned service group Noventi – which created the drug pre-order app „Call my Apo“. And since April, the Shop Apotheke from the Netherlands has also been courting Zava to make common cause. The Shop Apotheke website offers a direct link to Zava’s online doctor. A reference on the Internet side with a Button to the „Zava on-line physician“ is for this large and blue underlaid and for everyone obvious. However, there is also a reference to other in-patient doctors via Jameda, which is more difficult to find, according to the „Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung“ (DAZ). The pharmacists in the stationary pharmacies in this country are angry about the cooperation between the Dutch store Apotheke and Zava, especially since in Germany there is a free choice of doctor and pharmacy. The German Pharmacy Act therefore prohibits the assignment of patients and prescriptions according to Section 11, which states that „licence holders and staff of pharmacies…unless otherwise provided by law, shall not enter into any legal transactions or agreements with doctors or other persons involved in the treatment of diseases or with third parties which have as their object the preferential supply of certain medicines, the supply of patients, the assignment of prescriptions…“. The same applies to pharmacies in other EU countries if they supply patients in Germany with pharmaceuticals. The Shop Apotheke, on the other hand, heavily advertises on its website the cooperation with Zava doctors, although this is not allowed. The Shop Apotheke also points out that after a medical online questionnaire and a subsequent examination by the ZAVA doctors, the issued prescription goes directly to the Shop Apotheke in order to supply patients with an original German medicine within one or two working days. The criticism is as much directed at the elimination of the prescription requirement as at the prohibited assignment of patients on the one hand and prescriptions on the other. In the opinion of experts, this is not permitted by law, because the „standardized medical online questionnaire“ of the Shop Pharmacy probably does not correspond to the comparability of a telemedical treatment by Zava doctors.
Both business partners were confronted with the violations of the pharmacy law by the DAZ, but are not aware of any guilt. Store Apotheke refers to the freedom of choice of patients, which was described above, and to the compatibility with the prescription requirement. Zava refers to her app and thus to the view and selection of various doctor profiles. Once a prescription has been issued, Zava would either send the prescription to a mail-order pharmacy or, at the customer’s request, to one of 6,500 stationary pharmacies. Zava also doubts the allegation that the prescription requirement has been undermined, as prescriptions would only be issued after a diagnosis had been made beyond doubt. In addition, the questionnaires would comply with current medical guidelines, and if anything was unclear, Zava’s online doctors would ask for further information.