A new book critically examines the growth of India’s online pharmacies and their practices

Long before Madhukar Gangadi, CEO of MedPlus, opened his first store in Hyderabad, another vision had already taken root, larger and more deeply embedded within India’s emerging private healthcare system. MedPlus may have been the disruptor, but Apollo Pharmacy was the original architect of organised pharmacy retail in India.

By the mid-to-late 1980s, Apollo had decided to diversify beyond hospital walls. The group launched Apollo Pharmacy, its first pharmacy outlet, in 1987 in Chennai. It was the beginning of what would become India’s first pharmacy chain. What started as a few Apollo storefronts offering 24/7 access to genuine medicines quickly transformed into familiar outposts in many cities by the time MedPlus started reaching these locations.

Through the 1990s and 2000s, Apollo Pharmacy remained in the shadows of Apollo Hospitals. But it continued with a steady expansion across urban India, laying the foundation for what would grow into a network exceeding 1,000 stores by the early 2010s. Between 2010 and 2014, the network scaled rapidly. The year 2014 marked a major acquisition as Apollo picked up 320 stores of Hetero Med Solutions, significantly expanding its national footprint. In the next three years, Apollo Pharmacy was integrated with Apollo’s healthcare delivery. From 2015, Ask Apollo linked...

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