Physiotop

Physiotop is a German medical skincare brand for dry skin and skin prone to atopic dermatitis, the chronic itchy condition also known as eczema. It was developed in-house by Dermapharm AG, a pharmaceutical company based in Grünwald near Munich, and launched in November 2018 [10]. The range is built around two lines of creams and lotions, BASIS for daily care and AKUT for red, itchy and stressed skin, and around a lipid technology the company calls OLT®.

The brand is a small, focused one. It has no named founders, no separate corporate identity and, as of 2026, a range of nine products and sizes that has stayed essentially the same since launch. What makes it notable is its origin: it is a care line created by a drug manufacturer that was already known for prescription and over-the-counter skin medicines.

Physiotop did not grow out of a founder's kitchen or a start-up. It was a corporate project inside Dermapharm, a maker of generic drugs and dermatological preparations. The German pharmacy trade publication APOTHEKE ADHOC reported in November 2018 that Dermapharm had "brought a new medical skincare brand to market", and that the brand was an in-house development produced at Brehna near Leipzig [10].

A company spokesperson told the publication that introducing a care line had been overdue. The reasoning offered was twofold: Dermapharm was already known as a skin specialist through its medicines, and, in the spokesperson's view, skin problems were becoming more common and skin was becoming more sensitive. The spokesperson also said the packaging had been designed deliberately to stand apart from competitors. The BASIS products come in white and blue packs, the AKUT products in white and red.

Because Physiotop is a company development rather than a founder-led brand, no individual founders are named in any public account of its launch.

The brand launched in November 2018 with both of its current lines in place [10]. Dermapharm's own launch material, a document titled "Physiotop Neueinführung" (Physiotop introduction), dates from the same month and introduced the tagline that still headlines the brand website: "Nachhaltiger Hautschutz – ganzheitlich weiterentwickelt", roughly "lasting skin protection, developed further as a whole" [9]. In this phrase the word nachhaltig means long-lasting protection, not environmental sustainability.

At launch, nine different pharmacy product numbers were available, covering creams and lotions in several sizes. The launch strategy was quiet by consumer-brand standards. Physiotop was to be presented by Dermapharm's field sales force to pharmacies and dermatologists, and the spokesperson said no advertising campaign was planned at the time [10].

No later relaunches, new product lines or dated news about the brand have been publicly documented since 2018.

Physiotop belongs to Dermapharm AG, which also holds the copyright on the brand website [1]. Dermapharm is a publicly listed German pharmaceutical company that specializes in the manufacture and distribution of dermatological and allergological preparations [11]. It was founded in 1991 by Wilhelm Beier and has its headquarters in Grünwald, Bavaria. The brand has no separate company address; customer contact runs through Dermapharm's head office.

Physiotop was Dermapharm's second skincare brand. The first, Cutano, a care line of balm and wash lotion, had been listed since 2002 [10]. Within the wider Dermapharm group, the 2018 trade report also named prescription and pharmacy brands such as Ciclocutan for nail fungus and Ketozolin shampoo for dandruff, along with group companies including Hübner Naturarzneimittel and the drug manufacturer Mibe.

Production is tied to the group's own facilities. Physiotop is made in Brehna near Leipzig, where Dermapharm runs a production site through its subsidiary mibe GmbH Arzneimittel [11]. That same site later produced the COVID-19 vaccine tozinameran on behalf of BioNTech from October 2020, according to the Dermapharm entry on Wikipedia.

Physiotop describes itself as "the skincare series for dry or atopic-dermatitis-prone skin". Its stated idea is what the company calls a holistic care approach. The starting point, as Dermapharm's launch material explains it, is the skin's lipid barrier: the thin layer of fats that keeps moisture in and germs and irritants out. When that barrier is disturbed, the company says, skin quickly loses moisture and becomes rough, cracked and itchy [9].

The brand's answer is to supply lipids that resemble those of healthy skin and to pair them with ingredients that help the skin hold water. The AKUT line adds ingredients meant to calm itching and soothe redness. Both lines are presented as suitable for care alongside medical treatment of atopic dermatitis. BASIS is aimed at the periods between flare-ups, and AKUT at the flare-ups themselves.

In the market, Physiotop sits in the category of medical skincare sold through pharmacies. When it launched, the trade press placed it in a segment worth roughly 277 million euros a year in pharmacy sales, alongside larger names such as Eucerin, Bepanthol, Linola, Physiogel, Avène and Eubos [10]. The brand's stated point of difference in that crowded field was its lipid technology.

The core of the range is OLT®, short for "ortholamellar technology". According to Physiotop, it gives the skin a balanced mix of natural lipids, including phospholipids and carnauba wax, that together mimic the structure of a healthy skin barrier [3]. Carnauba wax, taken from the leaves of the carnauba palm, is described as the base lipid of the system. Moringa butter from the seed kernels of the moringa tree and shea butter are added; shea is used in the BASIS cream and the AKUT intensive cream.

Alongside the lipids, the formulas use glycerin and the amino acids glycine and serine, which the brand identifies as components of the skin's own natural moisturizing system. Niacinamide (vitamin B3) is included because, according to the company, it supports the skin's production of ceramides and fatty acids. For the AKUT line, Dermapharm names two soothing additions: avenanthramides, natural compounds from oats that the brand says reduce itching, and frankincense resin from Boswellia serrata, which the company notes has a long history of use in Ayurvedic medicine.

The range consists of five products in nine sizes:

- BASIS Creme and BASIS Lotion, for daily care of sensitive, dry and stressed skin. The cream is intended for smaller areas such as the face and the folds of the elbows and knees, the lotion for larger areas such as the torso, arms and legs. - AKUT Intensiv-Creme, AKUT Intensiv-Lotion and AKUT Handcreme, for red, itchy and heavily stressed skin.

All products are described as free from preservatives, fragrance and dyes, and as formulated without parabens or paraffins [4]. The brand also says they absorb quickly without leaving a greasy feel.

One small inconsistency appears between sources. The 2018 trade report stated that the care was not intended as acute care, apparently describing the BASIS line, while the brand website markets AKUT explicitly for acute care of reddened and itchy skin. The brand's efficacy statements, such as barrier strengthening and itch relief, are not accompanied by published clinical studies, and no third-party certifications are documented.

Physiotop is an active brand. As of 2026, its website presents the full BASIS and AKUT range of nine products under a "© 2026 Dermapharm AG" notice [1], and there is no sign that the line has been discontinued. The brand's own website is published in German only, and it is sold mainly through pharmacies, where each product carries a German pharmacy product number. No new products, relaunches or brand news have been publicly dated since the November 2018 launch.