Meningococcal B vaccination at the pharmacy

Since 2 July 2026 trained pharmacists have been allowed to give adults the meningococcal B vaccination. The rule sits in § 20c of the Infektionsschutzgesetz, the German infection protection act. You need no doctor’s appointment and no referral, and the age limit is 18. Permitted does not yet mean available everywhere: only a pharmacist trained for it by a physician may vaccinate, and the statute obliges nobody to.

For most adults it is not recommended. Meningococci are bacteria, and they come in several serogroups, and B is one of them. According to the Robert Koch-Institut they settle in the nose and throat. In rare cases they cause blood poisoning or meningitis — an inflammation of the lining around the brain and spinal cord. Across Germany fewer than 0.4 people in 100,000 fall ill from meningococci of any serogroup each year. Against serogroup B the Ständige Impfkommission at the Robert Koch-Institut, Germany’s standing committee on vaccination, recommends no general vaccination for adults.

Who it is recommended to

Only where a particular risk exists. In its recommendation of 2026 the Ständige Impfkommission lists the vaccination as an Indikationsimpfung. That is its category for a vaccination advised to people at raised risk rather than to everyone. Among adults that means a congenital or acquired immune deficiency, and the recommendation gives these examples:

• a complement or properdin deficiency, a gap in one part of the immune defence
• treatment with C5 complement inhibitors
• a lack of antibodies
• a missing spleen, or one that no longer works, with sickle cell disease for instance

The second group is laboratory staff exposed to meningococci. For both the Ständige Impfkommission recommends two vaccinations together: this one and the one against serogroups A, C, W and Y. Where cases cluster or an outbreak occurs, the health authorities issue their own recommendation, and the vaccination follows it.

How well the vaccination works in people with an immune deficiency is not known. The Ständige Impfkommission has no data on it, and the risk of falling ill differs from one underlying condition to the next. It concludes that the decision should follow an individual weighing of risk against benefit.

Falling outside these groups does not rule the vaccination out. The Robert Koch-Institut points to an individual decision after medical advice, within the terms of the licence. Whether that fits your case is something to settle at the pharmacy or at your doctor’s practice.

Before a trip

For meningococcal B the recommendation covers travel to countries where the disease occurs epidemically, especially where there is close contact with the local population. It names disaster relief workers, and development workers and medical staff where the exposure calls for it. Two bodies issue it: the Ständige Impfkommission and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Tropenmedizin, Reisemedizin und Globale Gesundheit, the German society for tropical medicine, travel medicine and global health. Before a long stay abroad, the recommendation follows what the destination country advises.

Because meningococci die quickly outside the body, an infection takes close contact: secretions from the mouth and throat have to pass from one person to the next. According to the Robert Koch-Institut, meeting somebody without such close contact does not normally pass the bacteria on.

Which strains it works against

Not every strain of serogroup B. Different strains of these bacteria circulate in Germany, and the Robert Koch-Institut puts the share the vaccination does not reach at under 20%.

Who pays

Annex 1 of the Schutzimpfungs-Richtlinie sets out who can claim what. It is the directive in which the Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss turns the recommendations of the Ständige Impfkommission into entitlements against the statutory health insurers.

Before a private trip you normally pay yourself. The 2026 recommendations of the Ständige Impfkommission name two exceptions from the Sozialgesetzbuch V, the German social code. Your insurer pays if the stay abroad is required by your job or your training. It also pays where keeping a communicable disease out of Germany is a matter of particular public interest. Some insurers refund travel vaccinations voluntarily, under their own statutes.

What the vaccination costs a self-payer is set by each pharmacy. Ask there before you book an appointment.