Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited is an Indian multinational

healthcare Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

group headquartered in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

. It is the largest

for-profit Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or buying and selling products (such as goods and services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for profit." A business entity is not necessari ...

private hospital network in India, with a network of 71 owned and managed hospitals. Along with the eponymous hospital chain, the company also operates

pharmacies Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

primary care Primary care is a model of health care that supports first-contact, accessible, continuous, comprehensive, and coordinated person-focused care. It aims to optimise population health and reduce disparities across the groups by ensuring equitable ...

and diagnostic centres, telehealth clinics, and digital healthcare services among others through its subsidiaries. The company was founded by Prathap C. Reddy in 1983 as the first corporate healthcare provider in India. Several of Apollo's hospitals have been among the first in India to receive

international healthcare accreditation Due to the near-universal desire for safe, effective, and high quality healthcare, there is a growing interest in international healthcare accreditation. Providing healthcare, especially of an adequate standard, is a complex and challenging proc ...

by the America-based Joint Commission International (JCI) as well as NABH accreditation.

History

Apollo Hospitals was founded by Prathap C. Reddy in 1983 as the first corporate health care in India. The first branch at Chennai was inaugurated by the then President of India Zail Singh. Apollo developed telemedicine services, after starting a pilot project in 2000 at Aragonda, Prathap Reddy's home village. In 2006, Apollo exited its hospital in

Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...

called Apollo Hospital Sri Lanka by selling its stake to Sri Lanka Insurance. In 2007, Apollo Hospitals and DKV AG established a 74:26

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

health insurance company called Apollo DKV Insurance Co. The company was rebranded as Apollo Munich Health Insurance in 2009. In 2008, Apollo Hospitals started Apollo Reach, a chain of hospitals for Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities as well as semi-urban and rural areas, with the opening of the first Apollo Reach hospital in Karimnagar. In December 2012, Apollo Hospitals sold its 38% stake in Apollo Health Street, the group's healthcare business process outsourcing division, to Sutherland Global Services for . In 2014, Apollo Hospitals acquired Hetero Med Solutions, a South Indian pharmacy chain with 320 stores, from Hetero Group for in a slump sale. The stores were rebranded as Apollo Pharmacy. In October 2015, Apollo launched home care services under Apollo HomeCare and its digital healthcare platform called Ask Apollo. Apollo signed an MoU with Health Education England in April 2017 to provide a large number of doctors to fill vacancies in the English

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the term for the publicly funded health care, publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom: the National Health Service (England), NHS Scotland, NHS Wales, and Health and Social Care (Northern ...

. In September 2017, Apollo announced an academic collaboration with Australia’s

Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...

, where students enrolled in Macquarie's four-year graduate entry Doctor of Medicine program would complete 5 months of clinical rotations at Apollo hospitals in Hyderabad as part of their degree. In January 2019, Apollo opened Apollo Proton Cancer Centre in Chennai, which is reportedly the first proton therapy facility across

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. In 2020, Apollo Hospitals sold its 50.80% percent majority stake in Apollo Munich Health Insurance to HDFC for . Later that year, it acquired IHH Healthcare's 50% joint venture stake in Apollo Gleneagles Hospital in Kolkata for . In March 2022, Apollo Hospitals was included in Nifty 50 benchmark index, replacing Indian Oil, and become the first hospital company to be included in the index. File:Apollo Proton Cancer Centre, Chennai.jpg, Apollo Proton Cancer Centre,

File:Apollo Hospital Indraprastha.jpg, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, Delhi File:Apollo Hospitals Bengaluru.jpg, Apollo Cancer Hospital & Research Centre, Bangalore File:Apollo_Hospitals, Visakhapatnam.jpg, Apollo Hospitals, Visakhapatnam

Subsidiaries

Apollo HealthCo

Apollo HealthCo was formed in 2021 with the merger of the group's non-hospital pharmacy chain Apollo Pharmacy and its digital healthcare business known as Apollo 24/7. *Apollo Pharmacy – Apollo Pharmacy is the largest retail pharmacy chain in India with more than 5,000 stores in over 21 states. It was started in 1987. *Apollo 24/7 – Apollo 24/7 is the digital healthcare platform of the group which was launched in 2020. It offers telehealth consultation, online medicine ordering and delivery, and in-home diagnostics among other services.

Apollo Health and Lifestyle

Apollo Health and Lifestyle is the primary and secondary care arm of the group which operates multi-specialty clinics under Apollo Clinics, diagnostics and

pathology Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...

labs under Apollo Diagnostics,

diabetes Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or the cells of th ...

clinics under Apollo Sugar, dental hospitals under Apollo White, dialysis centres under Apollo Dialysis, minimally invasive surgical hospitals under Apollo Spectra, women/children hospitals under Apollo Cradle, and fertility clinics under Apollo Fertility.

Apollo TeleHealth Services

Apollo TeleHealth Services owns the telehealth network of the group, operating via a

business-to-consumer Direct-to-consumer (DTC or D2C) or business-to-consumer (B2C) is the business model of selling products directly to customers and thereby bypassing any third-party retailers, wholesalers, or middlemen. Direct-to-consumer sales are usually transa ...

model under which it offers direct services like online consultations, appointment booking, medicine delivery, among others; a business-to-business offering to corporates for their employees; and a business-to-government agreement providing telehealth services in partnership with public health systems. Established in 1999, it is headquartered in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

and has more than 100 franchised teleclinics.

Research and education divisions

Stamp of India - 2019 - Colnect 874941 - Apollo Hospitals - Center of Cardiology

* Apollo Research and Innovations is a research arm of the group which is involved in

clinical trial Clinical trials are prospective biomedical or behavioral research studies on human subject research, human participants designed to answer specific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments (such as novel v ...

s of drugs, medical devices, healthcare software and consumer products. It was established in 2000 and has 17 centres at hospital locations. *Apollo Hospitals Education & Research Foundation is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

which conducts research projects in liquid biopsy, molecular diagnostics, pharmacogenomics and exosome technologies at its wet lab run by the Cell and Molecular Biology Research Centre (CMBRC). *Apollo Medskills is a private-public partnership between Apollo Hospitals and National Skill Development Corporation started in 2012 for the development of medical skills of healthcare workforce through 40+ training institutes across the country.

Controversies

In 2016, a patient died at Apollo's Bilaspur Hospital during a treatment for stomach pain. While the hospital attributed his death to poisoning, the post-mortem report remained inconclusive pending a chemical analysis. The forensic laboratory report, obtained in 2019, revealed no presence of poison. Later in 2023, four doctors were arrested but subsequently released on bail. In a 2019 order, the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (DSCDRC) found Indraprastha Apollo Hospital negligent in the treatment of a 24-year-old woman who died in 2007. As a result, the Commission directed the hospital to pay the woman's father a compensation of ₹10 lakh. British newspaper ''

Telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

'' in a December 2023 report alleged that the chain's Indraprastha Apollo Hospital was involved in facilitating a "cash-for-kidney" racket, luring impoverished villagers from Myanmar to sell their kidneys to wealthy Burmese patients through forged documents and fabricated family ties. The Government of Delhi consequently initiated an investigation against the hospital. In March 2024, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission fined Apollo Speciality Hospital in Chennai and two doctors ₹30 lakh for medical negligence. The case involved a patient who did not regain consciousness after spinal surgery in April 2015 and remained in a vegetative state until his death in April 2017. In March 2025, the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

warned Indraprastha Apollo Hospital that it will direct the All India Institute of Medical Sciences to take over if free treatment wasn't provided to poor patients in accordance with the original lease agreement, wherein 15 acres of prime land in Delhi was leased to Indraprastha Medical Corporation Limited by the Delhi Government for a symbolic rate of Re. 1 per month.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Hospital networks in India Companies based in Chennai Hospitals in Chennai Hospitals established in 1983 1983 establishments in Tamil Nadu Health care companies of India Indian companies established in 1983 Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange NIFTY 50