Apofam

Apofam is the brand of APOFAM GmbH, a small German company that supplies pharmacies with own-label products, over-the-counter goods and promotional items through a network of field sales representatives. Its best-known retail product is Apofam Rotes Weinlaub-Gel, a red vine leaf gel for tired legs that is sold in online pharmacies. The company's registered business purpose is the manufacture and sale of goods of all kinds, "in particular pharmacy-exclusive articles and products" [3].

Business registers classify APOFAM GmbH as a micro enterprise in the wholesale of pharmaceutical goods [3]. The company remains active: it continues to file annual accounts, and its leg gel is listed as in stock by an online pharmacy, although its own website has shown only a login page since early 2025.

The company's founding date is recorded differently by two business-data services. The Implisense company database lists APOFAM GmbH as registered since 18 October 1993 [3]. North Data, which compiles German register announcements, gives 30 July 2004 as its date of registration, with a managing director, share capital of 50,000 Deutsche Marks and a registered seat in Lünen [4]. A capital figure in Deutsche Marks points to a company set up before the euro replaced the mark, and the apofam.de domain already carried a static website in January 2002, so the 2004 date may reflect the first digitally published register entry rather than the founding itself. No published source names the founders.

The register trail since then is mostly routine. An address change was announced in 2011, and in 2017 a set of announcements recorded changes to the management, registered seat, address, share capital, articles of association and business purpose, followed by a relocation of the seat [4]. The company is now based at Industriestraße 11 in Datteln, in the Ruhr area of North Rhine-Westphalia. Its share capital has been stated as €25,565 since 2016, the euro equivalent of the original 50,000 marks.

In 2023 a word and figurative trademark for "APOFAM" was registered, announced on 27 June that year [4]. The brand's own website moved through several technical generations: a static HTML site in the early 2000s, a Drupal-based site from at least 2016, and a WordPress site by mid-2024.

Accounts of the management differ by source. An archived 2024 version of the company's "About us" page presents Christiane Brückner-Henkel as managing director (Geschäftsführerin) for the Ruhr and East Westphalia region [2], and Implisense listed her in the same role in mid-2025 [3]. North Data, by contrast, shows a September 2016 announcement stating that she was no longer managing director, followed by a 2017 publication bearing her name [4].

Apofam presents itself as a family business. On the archived "About us" page, Brückner-Henkel writes that she chose the company deliberately because it is family-run, describing a workplace where people still know each other personally, where short lines of communication ease the work with customers, and where much is more transparent than in a large corporation [2]. She describes more than 20 years of independent field sales work in pharmacies in North Rhine-Westphalia, much of it for the company Roha Apd, which she said she would continue to represent alongside Apofam.

According to the same page, the range offered to pharmacies spans non-prescription medicines, food supplements, medical devices, promotional articles and own brands [2]. The site's 2024 portfolio menu also listed cosmetics, children's articles, seasonal goods for Easter and Christmas, calendars, snacks, bags, give-away items and remaindered stock, alongside cleaning and air-purification products from Prowin. The team named on the page combined an office-based sales desk with representatives covering the Ruhr, East Westphalia and the Thuringia–Leipzig area, plus a Germany-wide field team shared with Roha Apd.

The company is, in short, as much a pharmacy supplier and sales agency as a consumer brand. The Apofam name appears on a small number of own-label products, while much of the business consists of distributing other goods to pharmacies.

The most visible Apofam product is Apofam Rotes Weinlaub-Gel ("red vine leaf gel"), sold in a 150 ml tube and as a twin pack of two 150 ml tubes. APOFAM GmbH is named as the manufacturer on its retail listing [5]. The gel is intended for tired, strained legs and is meant to be massaged in several times a day, working upward from the feet toward the thighs; the manufacturer says it gives a fresh, revitalising feeling to heavy legs. The listing carries usage warnings to keep the gel away from the eyes, open wounds and mucous membranes, and not to use it on children or infants.

No certifications, patents or clinical studies are documented for the brand.

Apofam is active. APOFAM GmbH published its annual accounts for the year to 31 December 2024 on 10 February 2026, continuing an unbroken series of filings [4]. As of November 2026, the red vine leaf gel was listed as available at Shop Apotheke [5]. The company's official website, however, has redirected visitors to a WordPress login screen since about February 2025, with no public content [1]. No product launches or press coverage have been recorded, and distribution appears limited to the pharmacy channel in Germany and neighbouring Austria.