From pharmaceuticals to multimodal healthcare solutions

MEDICE had reason to celebrate this year. 2024 marked the 75th anniversary of the company's founding. The family business is now in its third generation - and it looks back fondly on its roots. “Our origins define who we are and give us the stability to shape the future,” explains Dr. Katja Pütter-Ammer, Managing Partner of MEDICE. She has precise ideas for this future, as she makes clear in an interview with DAZ. Together with her husband, Dr. med. Dr. oec. Richard Ammer, she is developing MEDICE from a pure pharmaceutical manufacturer into a provider of multimodal healthcare solutions.

75 years ago, Gustav Pütter laid the foundation stone for today's MEDICE. Among other things, the alternative practitioner developed the Pütter dressing named after him, which is still on the market today, and began producing plant-based medicines such as the cold remedy Meditonsin, which has also proven its worth to this day.

The path to a modern healthcare company

After the sudden death of Gustav Pütter, his son, Dr. med. Sigurd Pütter, took over the company in 1977. The doctor transformed MEDICE into a modern pharmaceutical company. Under his direction, the development of prescription drugs such as Medikinet (methylphenidate) for the treatment of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) began. In 2002, Sigurd Pütter's daughter Katja and shortly afterwards her husband Richard Ammer, both also physicians, joined the company. Initially together with Sigurd Pütter, they developed MEDICE into the leading provider in the field of drug treatment of ADHD in children, adolescents and adults in Europe - most patients in this indication area are now treated with medicines from Iserlohn. Katja Pütter-Ammer recounts this part of the company's history as follows: “My father believed in evidence-based medicine and was driven by scientific progress. He was also a caretaker. It was important to him to see where we were needed and where we could make a contribution as a pharmaceutical manufacturer. When the topic of ADHD came up, pediatricians told him that they needed support with treatment. So he started developing medicines - despite resistance from those around him, because not everyone was a fan of the idea. My husband and I joined him shortly afterwards and we made it big together. Katja Pütter-Ammer describes working with her father as uncomplicated and enriching: “I have to say, we didn't have a single conflict, as is the case in so many family businesses. We got on very well and I think that gave the company a lot of strength.

MEDICE becomes the Health Family

The question “where can we as a pharmaceutical manufacturer make a contribution”, which determined Sigurd Pütter's actions, also drives Katja Pütter-Ammer and Richard Ammer. “From this mission, which is actually already 50 years old, we have derived the comprehensive concept of health that the MEDICE Health Family stands for,” they explain. What does the term, which was first presented at the beginning of 2022, stand for? MEDICE's aim is to become a leading developer and provider of a wide range of healthcare solutions. Pharmaceuticals are combined with developments from the fields of digital health and nutritional concepts to create a comprehensive prevention and therapy management system. “Of course, the focus is on our pharmaceutical expertise, well-researched and evidence-based medicines. But it's no longer just the medicine, it's more,” says Katja Pütter-Ammer. “We are breaking completely new ground in the direction of multimodal therapies.”

A visible sign of the MEDICE Health Family is the brand's new image. According to Katja Pütter-Ammer, it was very important to emphasize the family component. But the dimensions of science, evidence and sustainability were also to be represented in the new logo through the interplay of two shapes and colors. The shapes, a circle and a stylized leaf, were graphically separated from the existing logo and rearranged. “In this way, the new logo builds on the existing one - preserving tradition and looking to the future,” says Katja Pütter-Ammer.

What do multimodal health solutions look like?

According to Richard Ammer, one example of the focus on multimodal therapy is the combination of pharmacological ADHD therapy with digital solutions such as the digital health application (DiGA) hiToco®, developed by Health Family member Medigital GmbH. This is a parent training program consisting of five consecutive modules with different chapters. Parents and other guardians receive background information on ADHD and learn how to adapt their parenting behavior together with their child in an interactive way. The program begins with an examination of the parents' own challenges and stress levels, then looks at relationships within the family with a particular focus on strengthening relationships with the child and finally deals specifically with the child's individual behavioral problems. “We get our driver's license, but we're not usually taught how to raise children. With children with behavioral problems, you may also need a few more driving lessons. There are manuals for this, which are also evidence-based, but it's difficult for parents to read them on their own. The psychotherapist can try to teach them, but they also need to be practiced, especially between sessions. With hiToco®, parents now have a good opportunity to practice and learn how to better deal with their child's behavioral disorders,” says Richard Ammer, explaining the value of hiToco®. The digital health application was developed under the scientific direction of Prof. Dr. Anja Görtz-Dorten and Prof. Dr. Manfred Döpfner at the Center for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University Hospital of Cologne. hiToco® has now been tested in studies and is to be included in the DiGA directory. In the foreseeable future, hiToco® will also be available on prescription. Self-payers can already use the program.

A nutritional concept aimed at ADHD patients is also being developed. Richard Ammer explains: “What we eat and how we eat can have an impact on our physical and mental development. A varied breakfast is particularly important for children so that their bodies have the nutrients they need for healthy development”. The development of a healthy breakfast product is therefore also planned as part of this concept. “It is very important for us to offer something here, as many of these children leave the house without breakfast,” Katja Pütter-Ammer adds to her husband's explanations.

Focus on intestinal health

The MEDICE Health Family is also working on nutritional concepts outside of ADHD. The focus of a concept currently offered by the MEDICE subsidiary Theralution, which includes fiber, lactic acid-forming bacterial cultures, aloe vera juice and a fermentate, is intestinal health. “The purpose of the concept is to enable patients, both irritable bowel patients and those with food intolerances for which there is currently no real solution, to lead a normal life again,” explains Dr. rer. nat. Uwe Baumann, Managing Director of the MEDICE Health Family and responsible for the Primary & Consumer Care (PCC) division. “We believe that a low-fiber diet carries a great risk. That's why the concept provides for the careful and gradual administration of fibre,” he emphasizes. At the heart of the concept, however, is the fermentate, which is obtained from fruit and vegetables. Fermentation removes irritants such as lectins, lactose and gluten, but also provides important ingredients for intestinal health. According to Baumann, these are in particular biogenic amines, which have a repairing effect on cell metabolism, as well as short-chain fatty acids such as propionate. Propionate is converted into butyrate in the intestine. “There are studies that show that this butyrate can then also make a very strong contribution to cell regeneration and inflammation inhibition almost immediately,” says Uwe Baumann. The nutritional concept is currently still in the trial phase with medical practices. In future, however, it will also be sold through pharmacies - and further concepts for different needs are to follow.

Three E's for sustainable4U

One aspect that the MEDICE Health Family attaches great importance to in all considerations regarding the company's direction and further development is responsibility for people and the environment. MEDICE has founded a subsidiary for this purpose: sustainable4U GmbH. It supports the MEDICE Health Family with long-term projects in its transformation from a pharmaceutical manufacturer to a broadly active healthcare company geared towards sustainability. “We always say that we work with the three E's here - emerge, develop and sustain,” says Katja Pütter-Ammer, describing the activities of sustainable4U GmbH. With regard to the creation level, it is about looking after natural spaces. “We also have a large garden here on site, the Health Family Garden, where we keep bees and have sown flowering meadows,” says Katja Pütter-Ammer. The company also has its own vegetable garden to supply employees according to a seasonal and regional concept. For the second level, the develop level, sustainable4U GmbH designs sustainable advertising materials, among other things. “We no longer go to our partners in the healthcare sector with pens from China, but only want to offer sustainable products in the long term,” emphasizes Uwe Baumann. For example, small jars of honey are distributed as advertising material in pharmacies or doctors' surgeries - some of the honey comes from the company's own bee colonies. “We have a scoring model here at the company that evaluates every single advertising medium that goes out according to sustainability criteria. Nothing that falls below a certain score is allowed to go out,” adds Katja Pütter-Ammer. Finally, at the conservation level, sustainable4U develops concepts to conserve resources. With the help of the company's Green Guide, the optimization of processes in commercial kitchens counteracts food waste and conserves resources.

Well positioned for the future

Security of supply is increasingly important for pharmacies in view of the growing problem of supply bottlenecks. MEDICE manufactures medicines in Germany at the company sites in Iserlohn and Ringelheim (Schaper & Brümmer). “We are clearly committed to Germany as a location and thus make a reliable contribution to securing the supply of medicines,” says Richard Ammer. The company is also socially committed. “Growing ecological problems, social stress situations such as stress or loneliness, poor nutrition and lack of exercise are often the cause of serious illnesses. There is an urgent need for action at all levels,” he emphasizes. The MEDICE Health Family therefore focuses on projects that specifically counteract these deficiencies and thus the development of secondary health problems. The motto behind the commitment is “Together for a healthier world”. This is what the MEDICE Health Family stands for and sees itself well positioned for the future of the company.

Source of the article:

Deutsche Apotheker Zeitung (DAZ) / Dr. Beatrice Rall / 05.12.2024