Friday, April 20, 2007
Healthcare Goes Retail
Fast Growth
In my second posting sometime in August last year, I wrote about Optival Health Solutions, a company which was setting up retail pharmacies under the brand name of Aushadhi. At that time they had 53 outlets across Andhra and Karnataka. Sometime back I read that the company had received an investment from iLabs and had changed its name to Medplus Health Services.
Yesterday, Dr.Madhukar Gangadi, the founder of the Company was featured in the Economic Times. Medplus is already at 120 stores and expects to get to 250-300 by June. Now, that is some ramp-up. Of course, this area is hot, what with a host of big names already having jumped into the fray (most prominent among these of course being Fortis World). But going from scratch to 250 stores in slightly over 15 months (Medplus opened its first store in Feb 06) is great going. And now Dr.Gangadi is talking about launching the concept of Integrated Health Centers, which will also include diagnostic labs and clinics. A concept that is becoming popular, and in my opinion, will become a significant part of the healthcare delivery process in India.
In my second posting sometime in August last year, I wrote about Optival Health Solutions, a company which was setting up retail pharmacies under the brand name of Aushadhi. At that time they had 53 outlets across Andhra and Karnataka. Sometime back I read that the company had received an investment from iLabs and had changed its name to Medplus Health Services.
Yesterday, Dr.Madhukar Gangadi, the founder of the Company was featured in the Economic Times. Medplus is already at 120 stores and expects to get to 250-300 by June. Now, that is some ramp-up. Of course, this area is hot, what with a host of big names already having jumped into the fray (most prominent among these of course being Fortis World). But going from scratch to 250 stores in slightly over 15 months (Medplus opened its first store in Feb 06) is great going. And now Dr.Gangadi is talking about launching the concept of Integrated Health Centers, which will also include diagnostic labs and clinics. A concept that is becoming popular, and in my opinion, will become a significant part of the healthcare delivery process in India.
# posted by Srivathsan @ 7:42 PM 
