Pharmacies can now offer blood tests, and at expopharm we showed the health minister how
Aniva for Pharmacies went to expopharm in Munich, where Federal Health Minister Dr Carsten Linnemann stopped at the stand. The pharmacists who came asked us how to begin, and this is the answer we gave them.
Written by
Robert Jakobson
Published on
September 23, 2026
Aniva for Pharmacies is our new service that lets a pharmacy in Germany offer blood tests to its own customers without the cost and the work of running a laboratory. From 15 to 17 September we showed it at expopharm in Munich, the largest trade fair for the pharmacy market, and spent three days at a counter answering the same question in different words: how do we start?
Photo: BMG/Xander Heinl
What happened at our stand
expopharm was open from 15 to 17 September 2026 at the Munich exhibition centre, with nearly 27,000 trade visitors and more than 500 exhibitors and brands.1 Our stand was busy from the first morning to the last afternoon, and most of the pharmacists who stopped asked us how to begin.
The questions we heard were practical ones about the test itself. The handout people asked for most was the list of markers, which names every value a customer can have measured. Almost every conversation began with capillary collection, which takes a small sample from the surface of the skin with a device on the upper arm, because a pharmacy can start with it now and visitors liked how simple it is. Venous collection, which takes the sample from a vein, was mentioned as the step after that, which is also the order in which Aniva sets a pharmacy up.
The health minister came to the stand
Dr Carsten Linnemann, Federal Minister of Health since 29 July 2026, stopped at the Aniva stand for about ten minutes.2 He asked Noah Petermann, our founder, how the test works and what the pharmacy reform changes for a pharmacy, looked at the case studies on the screen, tried the pinball machine and was photographed with the team. His questions were the same ones the pharmacists at the stand had asked us.
Dr Carsten Linnemann at the case-study screen on the Aniva stand. Photo: BMG/Xander Heinl
ABDA asked the minister to use the reach of pharmacies
The pharmacists' own associations also spoke to the minister in Munich, in public and in front of the whole profession. Thomas Preis, president of ABDA, the federation of German pharmacists' associations, told the Deutscher Apothekertag, the profession's annual congress, on 15 September that the legislator has given pharmacies more possibilities, more tasks and with them more responsibility in healthcare.3 He asked the minister directly to use the reach of pharmacies and the trust people place in them. A blood test at the counter is one way for a pharmacy to use that reach, because its customers already come in and already know the team.
The federal chamber wants pharmacies to guide people to the right care
On 16 September Franziska Scharpf, vice-president of the Bundesapothekerkammer, the federal chamber of pharmacists, argued on the prevention panel that pharmacies should work as “Gesundheitslotsen”, health guides who help people find the right care.4 A blood test at the counter is one concrete service a pharmacy can offer in that role, and Aniva for Pharmacies gives a pharmacy everything it needs for one apart from taking the sample.
Why a pharmacy may take blood now
The law behind this is the “Apothekenversorgung-Weiterentwicklungsgesetz”, the act on developing pharmacy supply, known everywhere as the ApoVWG. The Bundestag passed it on 22 May 2026, and it lets a pharmacy take blood from adults for diagnostic purposes.
Capillary and venous collection follow different rules
The law treats the two kinds of collection differently, because its new rules for taking blood apply only to a sample taken from a vein.
Capillary collection may be done today, and the pharmacy does not have to notify any authority first. The existing rules for blood tests in a pharmacy still apply to it, such as the Federal Chamber of Pharmacists’ guideline on blood tests and the rules for operating medical devices.
Venous collection has been allowed since 2 July 2026 on conditions. Only a licensed pharmacist who has completed training given by a doctor may take the sample, and only from a person aged 18 or over. Before the first venous draw the pharmacy tells the competent authority about the procedure and the rooms at least a week ahead. It also needs liability insurance that covers damage from blood collection. The Federal Chamber of Pharmacists, working with the German Medical Association, owes the model curricula for that training by 2 November 2026, and that is the reform’s next deadline.
Payment by the statutory health funds is a separate matter. The law lists blood collection apart from the pharmaceutical services that the funds pay for, so a customer pays for a blood test at the pharmacy themselves.
Germany has fewer pharmacies every year
The reform applies to every pharmacy in the country, and there are fewer of them each year. Germany had 16,488 pharmacies on 30 June 2026 according to ABDA, which is 113 fewer than at the end of 2025.5 That figure is often read as the size of a ready-made blood collection network. A pharmacy is only part of such a network once it can send a sample to a laboratory and give the customer a readable report, and a pharmacy does not have that on its own. Aniva for Pharmacies exists so that a pharmacy can get it without building any of it itself.
What makes a pharmacy a place to have blood taken
A pharmacy becomes a place where a customer can have blood taken only once all of this is true at the same time.
Somebody on the pharmacy team may legally take the sample that day.
An accredited laboratory accepts that sample and analyses it.
A courier gets the sample to the laboratory while it is still usable.
The customer gets back a report they can actually read and use.
The laboratory, the courier and the report each need their own contract, process and insurance cover. Aniva arranges all of that, and the pharmacy team takes the sample.
How a blood test is done at your pharmacy
This is the sequence from the first question at the counter to the finished report.
A customer asks about a supplement, a symptom or a check, and that conversation is the occasion for the test.
The pharmacist collects the sample with Tasso+ on the upper arm, which is a small device placed on the skin that draws a capillary sample.
A courier picks the sample up at the latest on the next working day, and Saturday counts as a working day.
The laboratory analyses the sample and produces the report.
The report is usually there after three to five days, and the customer and the pharmacy both see it through the Aniva platform.
Switching to venous collection later changes only the collection, because the kits, the logistics, the laboratory and the report are Aniva's and stay exactly as they are.
Who does what
The pharmacy and Aniva each have their own part of the work.
Who does what
Step
The pharmacy
Aniva
Appointment
Books the appointment and greets the customer
Provides the platform the appointment is booked in
Collection
Takes the sample at the counter
Provides the collection kits
Transport and analysis
Hands the sample to the courier
Arranges the courier and the accredited laboratory
Advice
Gives the advice and makes the recommendation
Produces the report the advice is based on
Customer and data
Keeps the customer relationship
Handles the data processing in Germany under GDPR
How to start
Most of the pharmacists we met in Munich wanted to begin straight away rather than after a trial, and a pharmacy can do that as a pilot with no minimum order. Many teams do the first few checks on their own staff before they offer them at the counter.
For pharmacies that were at expopharm, or that missed us there, we have put together a starter package at the fair price, and it is available for a limited time. Book a demo call and we will show you the process and the package in about twenty minutes.
Aniva provides the labs, the test kits, the shipping, the software and the data protection paperwork. You offer blood tests under your own brand. Tell us which tests you need and we will show you how it works.
