Apollo Hospitals plans to launch 50 clinics in six months

Hyderabad: Apollo Hospitals and MSD Pharmaceuticals have entered into a collaboration to launch exclusive clinics for diabetics. The first of the two ‘Sugar’ clinics has started functioning here.

“The idea is to open 200 such stores across all our group hospitals and clinics. But in the next six months we are looking at opening 50 such clinics with an investment of Rs 40 crore,” Dr Prathap C. Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group, said.

According to him, while Apollo will support infrastructure development, MSD will provide the scientific platform and technology for the development of such clinics.

Dr K. Hari Prasad, Chief Executive Officer, Apollo Health City, said the clinics offer exclusive facilities catering to all needs of a diabetic.

“It also includes specialised clinics for eye, kidneys, heart and feet. These clinics will mange the lifecycle of a diabetic and work towards minimising the associated morbidity and mortality,” he added.

Dr Reddy said it also proposed to launch new standalone clinics in communities where the incidence of diabetes is high.

According to the MoU, MSD would provide Apollo, free of cost, the right to use Merck’s software tools specific for the development of the structured care protocols.

It also states that MSD would allow such customisation of the Merck’s software as is required by Apollo, the cost of which shall be borne by Apollo. The software so customised would be exclusive to Apollo and it shall retain the rights of the same.