Apollo pharmacy products will soon be available on Amazon

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Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Ltd on January 28 announced the products sold by its subsidiary, Apollo Pharmacies Ltd, will be available through the online platform of Amazon India.

The partnership with the e-commerce giant is expected to widen the market for Apollo Pharmacies, as the healthcare company so far relied on its offline chain of stores, apart from its own online portal.

In a regulatory filing, Apollo Hospitals said, "This is to inform you that Apollo Pharmacies Limited, an associate company of the company, has decided to list its pharmacy products on www.amazon.in (Amazon

India)."

"With this listing of products from Apollo Pharmacies, Amazon India customers shall have access to pharmacy products across India, delivered by Amazon," it added.

The announcement comes around two months after Moneycontrol had reported, citing sources, about the talks between Amazon and Apollo Hospitals for a partnership in their pharmacy business.

The sources had suggested that Apollo Hospitals was in talks with several private equity funds with tech focus for a minority stake sale in the pharmacy business. Investors were keen if Amazon partners with Apollo to enhance its primarily offline model with its online reach and make it fully omnichannel, the persons privy to the development had shared.

Notably, online pharmacy is becoming a fiercely competitive space as Reliance recently bought NetMeds and Tata Digital acquired 1mg. Amazon's partnership with an offline large player will heat up the space even more.

Apollo Hospitals Enterprises had announced the merger of its online and offline pharmacies and telemedicine businesses through slump sale into 100 percent subsidiary Apollo HealthCo earlier in 2021.