‘Health Care Should Move Out of Hospitals'

Shobana Kamineni, executive vice chairperson, Apollo Hospitals, on the increasing competition in the pharmacy business, the importance of telemedicine post-Covid and why patient care, and not revenues, should be top priority

- POOJA SARKAR

Q You spearhead the pharmacy business. Take us through its recent demerger worth ₹567 crore from the listed business and the way forward for this vertical.

The pharmacy demerger was because of compliance. When we started it, we looked at it as patient care and suddenly it became materially significant. When you have 3,800 pharmacies and such a turnover, and you’re making profits, it becomes materially significant. The demerger took a long time because there are almost 15,000 permissions that are required. We have pharmacies in so many states, so many locations. It took us over a year and now the National Company Law Tribunal has cleared it. What it has actually given us is the ability to have a great new company, a subsidiary that is focussed… we decided to add digital to it. We now have probably India’s finest digital health-spanning pharmacy.

Q Amazon recently launched its pharmacy business, Reliance acquired Netmeds and there was Medlife’s merger with PharmEasy. How do you think this sector will pan out?