Dr. Böhm

Dr. Böhm® is an Austrian brand of herbal medicines and food supplements, owned by the Graz family company Apomedica Pharmazeutische Produkte GmbH. It is named after Dr. Friedrich Böhm, a physician and pharmacist from Graz who began developing his own plant-based remedies in the 1960s. The brand's own history page dates its founding to 1990 [2], although the company's marketing also counts its story from 1960 and from 1968, the year Apomedica was founded. Austrian pharmacy trade press described Dr. Böhm® in 2021 as the best-known brand in Austrian pharmacies [8].

Most of the range addresses general health, from joints and the heart to sleep, memory and digestion. Its link to beauty runs through a line of supplements for skin, hair and nails, taken as tablets, alongside one topical hyaluronic acid serum. The brand is sold through pharmacies and remains active, with new products and news items published in 2026.

The story behind the brand begins with a family of doctors in Graz, the capital of the Austrian state of Styria. According to the brand's history page, Friedrich Böhm's grandparents founded the private clinic Privatklinikum Hansa in Graz in 1907. Apomedica's corporate history describes the clinic, known as the Hansa Sanatorium, as respected throughout Styria and Austria.

Böhm finished his medical degree at 23 and later also completed a degree in pharmacy. The company says he was drawn early to medicinal plants. Rather than practise as a doctor, he chose pharmacy: in 1960 he took over the Grazer Opernapotheke, a pharmacy in Graz, and began developing his own herbal medicines with a focus on efficacy and safety.

In 1968 he founded Apomedica, the company that would later carry the Dr. Böhm® line [8]. Its first brand was LUUF®, an herbal remedy for colds in babies and children that Böhm developed in the mid-1960s. A homoeopathic line, Apozema®, followed in 1983.

The brand's history page calls Friedrich Böhm the "Ideengeber und Visionär" — the originator of the idea and visionary behind the company. His guiding motto, as the company quotes it, holds that nature in its diversity offers everything people need, and that it should be used "with passion and inventiveness". Apomedica also quotes him describing himself as a pharmacist and doctor whose greatest joy was creating special products for people. Böhm died in 2013, according to Apomedica's history page [7].

### The founding date

Dr. Böhm® presents three different starting points, depending on where one looks. The brand's history page dates the founding of the Dr. Böhm® brand itself to 1990 [2]. Its homepage, by contrast, says Friedrich Böhm laid the foundation for a philosophy of natural, effective preparations in 1960 [1]. That year marks his takeover of the Opernapotheke rather than the launch of a branded product line.

A third date comes from the company's anniversary marketing. The brand ran a campaign celebrating "50 Jahre Dr. Böhm®" and has used the phrase "since 1968" [6]. That count starts from the founding of Apomedica, not of the Dr. Böhm® line. The homepage likewise states that Dr. Böhm® has stood for quality, efficacy and safety "for more than 50 years".

Independent and corporate accounts both place the brand line in the early 1990s. PHARM-AUSTRIA, an Austrian pharmacy trade publication, wrote in 2021 that the Dr. Böhm® brand line was established in the early 1990s [8], and Apomedica's own timeline says the line achieved its breakthrough in that period. This article follows 1990, the date the brand's history page gives for its founding.

### Garlic dragées and growth

According to PHARM-AUSTRIA, the first Dr. Böhm® product was a garlic dragée, which was still on sale in 2021. Apomedica describes the garlic dragée as the flagship of the line's early success in food supplements and herbal products.

From there the range widened steadily. By 2021 the Dr. Böhm® portfolio comprised about 70 products, the trade publication reported. The brand's website today groups its products by area of use, including eyes, bladder and prostate, women's health, joints and back, heart and blood vessels, immunity and colds, sport, sleep and stress, memory, and digestion. A separate area covers skin, hair and nails.

New products have continued to appear in recent years. The brand's news listing records launches such as a Coenzyme Q10 product for heart function, a reformulated monk's pepper (Mönchspfeffer forte) for menstrual complaints, and Gedächtnis aktiv direct-sticks for memory. A joint supplement in drinkable form, also offered in a raspberry flavour, was added to the range as well.

The company has also extended how customers can buy its products. A news item announced a new function allowing Dr. Böhm® products to be ordered online, an addition to the pharmacy channel on which the brand was built.

Dr. Böhm® belongs to Apomedica Pharmazeutische Produkte GmbH, a family company based in Graz. The brand's homepage describes Apomedica as one of the largest specialists in plant-based medicines ("Phyto-Spezialisten") in Europe.

Apomedica manages six brands, according to PHARM-AUSTRIA: Dr. Böhm®, LUUF®, Apozema®, Lasepton®, Insecticum® and Pasta Cool® [8]. Of these, Lasepton®, a line of medical skincare, came to the company through an acquisition in 2007, according to Apomedica's corporate site. The Hansa private clinic founded by Böhm's grandparents is also listed among the group's associated names on the brand's website.

The company is led by managing director Mag. Ruth Fischer, who continues the work begun by the founder. The brand's history page describes the business as an Austrian family company with a team of 80 experts. The 2021 trade interview with Fischer gave a figure of 71 employees.

In that interview, Fischer said Apomedica had become the leading pharmaceutical company for herbal medicines in Austria, and the publication reported that Apomedica ranked second in the Austrian over-the-counter pharmacy market. Fischer described an ambition for the company to become a "health competence centre" built on plant medicine.

Dr. Böhm® positions itself around three values: quality, efficacy and safety in herbal medicines and food supplements. Its tagline is "Natürlich für meine Gesundheit" ("Naturally for my health"), and on its homepage the brand calls itself "Die Nr. 1 aus der Apotheke" — the number one from the pharmacy.

The trade press offers a narrower, independent version of that claim. PHARM-AUSTRIA reported that Dr. Böhm® ranked first in the Austrian pharmacy market by revenue in 2020 and second by number of packs sold [8]. Since the figures appeared in an interview with the company's managing director, they partly reflect the company's own account.

The pharmacy channel is central to the brand's identity. In 2021 Fischer stated that Apomedica would remain exclusive to pharmacies in the future. The brand's website includes a pharmacy finder, and its promotions have often been aimed at pharmacies, such as a photo competition for the best Magnesium Sport® shop-window display in Austria.

### The five-pillar quality principle

The company sets out its approach in what it calls a five-pillar quality principle. The first pillar concerns raw materials: Dr. Böhm® says its plant extracts must meet the requirements of the European Pharmacopoeia, the official quality standard for medicines in Europe, with attention to origin, testing and active-ingredient content. The second is dosing. The brand states that its products are "neither under- nor overdosed" and that the effectiveness of each dose must be supported by a study.

The third pillar covers combinations. According to the company, every active ingredient in a product targets the intended use and complements the others. The fourth concerns galenics, the craft of preparing and mixing active and inactive ingredients, with the aim of good absorption, tolerability and shelf life.

The fifth pillar is manufacturing. Dr. Böhm® says it produces not only its medicines, where this is required by law, but also its food supplements, where it is voluntary, to Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards. Production takes place exclusively in Austria, Germany and Switzerland, according to the brand [3].

The company adds some practical preferences. It favours tablets over capsules, which it says are easier to swallow, neutral in taste and able to hold more active ingredient. It also says it uses only harmless fillers and packs every product in hygienic blister packaging.

### Skin, hair and nails

The brand's beauty range is built on the idea of "beauty from within". Dr. Böhm® argues that stress, too much UV light, alcohol, nicotine and poor diet affect appearance, and that outer care should be paired with an adequate supply of vitamins and minerals. On its skin, hair and nails page, the company names hyaluronic acid and collagen as its main skin ingredients, and silica, biotin, golden millet and pantothenic acid for hair and nails. Copper, selenium and zinc play a supporting role, while resveratrol and beta-carotene are presented as plant antioxidants for the skin.

The long-standing product in this area is Dr. Böhm® Haut Haare Nägel (skin, hair, nails). Its formula combines golden millet extract and silica with biotin, pantothenic acid, zinc, copper, iron and selenium, plus MSM, a sulphur compound. The brand describes the combination of golden millet and silica with natural sulphur as unique to the product.

Dr. Böhm® Hyaluron complex + Serum pairs tablets with a topical serum. The tablets contain hyaluronic acid and collagen together with resveratrol, biotin, vitamin C and trace minerals. The serum, according to the company, uses high- and low-molecular hyaluronic acid for an immediate effect on the skin. It is the only topical product in the beauty range, which otherwise consists of supplements.

The newest addition is Dr. Böhm® Haarstruktur, sold as a "Premium Wirkkomplex" (premium active complex). It contains collagen type I, elastin, keratin, melanin and wheat ceramides, along with pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, biotin, zinc and copper. The brand describes it as the only product to contain the most important structural building blocks of hair. A further supplement, Dr. Böhm® SonnenCarotin, combines beta-carotene, astaxanthin, lycopene and lutein and is marketed as protection from within during periods of strong sun exposure.

### The wider range

Outside the beauty line, the products the brand highlights as most popular are Dr. Böhm® Gelenks complex for cartilage and bones, Gedächtnis aktiv capsules for memory, and Omega 3 complex capsules. Its magnesium range, led by Dr. Böhm® Magnesium Sport®, has its own section on the website. Newer launches include Magnesium Sport® with creatine and Dr. Böhm® Baldrian, a valerian product for sleep.

Research is a large part of how Dr. Böhm® presents itself. The company describes its research approach as resting on five elements: cooperation with universities and clinics, clinical studies, publication in peer-reviewed journals listed in PubMed, presentations at scientific congresses, and support for young researchers.

Its listed research partners include the University of Graz (Karl-Franzens-Universität), the University of Vienna and the Karl Landsteiner private university in Krems [4]. It also works with the Austrian Society for Phytotherapy (ÖGPHYT), the Society for Medicinal Plant and Natural Product Research and the Herbal Medicinal Products Platform Austria. At Karl Landsteiner university, the brand has sponsored a certificate course on evidence-based phytotherapy, the use of plant-based medicines.

The company reports results from several studies it initiated. In one, according to Apomedica, cranberry combined with watercress and horseradish significantly improved symptoms in 48 women with urinary tract infections [4]. The company also says its pumpkin seed extract reduced the frequency of night-time urination by more than 25%. In another study, it reports that a key measure of the blood's buffering capacity returned to normal within 90 minutes after exercise in participants taking Dr. Böhm® Magnesium Sport® with amino acids. These are company-reported findings.

Support for students forms another strand. Apomedica awards an annual research prize for medicinal plant research at the University of Graz and funds scholarships for pharmacy students, including a botanical field excursion. The brand also became a supporting member of the Austrian Headache Society (ÖKSG). At the botanical garden in Graz, a pavilion bears the Dr. Böhm name and has hosted public talks on medicinal plants.

The awards Dr. Böhm® lists come from its own news pages, and several were given to the parent company rather than to the brand. Among consumer tests, the brand reports being named the strongest brand in Austria in the MARKET brand test in 2020 and 2022, and overall winner of the MARKET test in 2025 and 2026 [6]. It also says Austrian consumers voted it their favourite brand ("Lieblingsmarke der Österreicher") in 2023 and 2024.

Individual products have been recognised as well. Dr. Böhm® Gelenks complex intensiv was named "Innovation of the Year 2021", according to the brand. Dr. Böhm® Darm aktiv received the top grade "very good" in a PKA product test in October 2023, and the brand has won the MARKET test for sedatives and sleep aids three years running.

At company level, Apomedica has received multiple IQVIA awards, presented in Vienna and referred to on the company's news pages as the "Pharma-Oscars". The company reports awards in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2024 and, most recently, on 15 June 2026. In 2017 Apomedica placed second in OTC Mirror, a survey of Austrian pharmacists' favourite brands.

Dr. Böhm® is an active brand. Its news pages carry items from 2026, including the MARKET test result, the IQVIA awards and reports from that year's scholarship excursion. Several products, among them Haarstruktur, Baldrian and Magnesium Sport® with creatine, were marked as new on the brand's homepage in 2026.

The brand operates country websites for Austria and Germany. Austria is its home market, where its pharmacy presence and awards are concentrated.