A Filialapotheke is a branch pharmacy operated by the same owner as the main pharmacy. It has its own premises, its own staff and a pharmacist responsible for it on site, and it operates as a pharmacy in its own right rather than as a counter belonging to somewhere else. The owner carries the responsibility across all of the sites, which is what makes the group a Filialverbund rather than a set of unrelated businesses.
It is a different instrument from a Zweigapotheke. A Zweigapotheke is granted to secure medicine supply in an area that would otherwise not be supplied, it is tied to that purpose, and what it may do and for how long is narrower as a result. A Filialapotheke carries no such supply justification and is not limited in that way. The conditions attaching to each, including how many branches one owner may hold and what the permit for each requires, are set out in the guidance from the ABDA and the Landesapothekerkammer, and they are worth reading in the original rather than from memory.
The distinction matters most when a service is rolled out across sites. Since the ApoVWG came into force on 2 July 2026, Blutentnahme is an apothekenübliche Dienstleistung, and a pharmacy owner with three sites tends to read that as one decision. In practice it is three. Each site needs its own equipment, because equipment cannot be carried between branches on the day it is needed. Each site needs its own trained staff, because the training attaches to the person and not to the group, and a member of staff qualified at the main pharmacy does not cover an appointment at a branch unless that person is there.
Each site also needs its own written procedures in force, even where the Standardarbeitsanweisung is drafted once centrally. Drafting centrally is sensible and it is how most Filialverbünde do it. What cannot be centralised is the local part, meaning the named responsible person, the room actually used, the equipment actually in that building and the evidence that the staff there were trained on that version. A binder that exists at the main pharmacy and not at the branch is a gap at the branch. The realistic plan is therefore to pilot at one site, get the procedure stable, and then repeat the local work at each further site rather than assume it travels.
This glossary entry is general information about German pharmacy law and practice. It is not legal advice. For binding guidance on your own pharmacy, contact your Landesapothekerkammer.
