Walgreens is Turning to Robots to Do This Task

As pharmacists take on more responsibilities at pharmacy chain Walgreens, the company has turned to bright yellow robots to help out with filling prescriptions.

Walgreens Boots Alliance is opening robot-powered micro-fulfillment centers across the U.S. to take on that task as the role of stores and pharmacists change.

The drugstore chain plans to open 22 facilities across the country and by 2025, as much as half of Walgreens’ total prescription volume could be filled at the automated hubs, said Rex Swords.

Swords oversees the network of facilities as Walgreens’ group president of centralized services, operations and planning.

Inside of a large facility in the Dallas area, the robots already fill thousands of prescriptions for customers who take medications to manage or treat high blood pressure, diabetes or other conditions.

Each robot can fill 300 prescriptions in an hour, the company said — roughly the same number that a typical Walgreens pharmacy with a handful of staff may do in a day.

The global health crisis has heightened demand for pharmacists, as hospitals and drugstores hired them to administer Covid vaccines and tests.
Walgreens’ new CEO is former Starbucks operating chief Roz Brewer.

That will free up more of pharmacists’ time to provide health care, Brewer said in an interview with CNBC’s Bertha Coombs about the robots.

“We’re doing all of this work, so that the pharmacist has an easier job, so that they can get back to being front and center, building a relationship with that patient and interacting the way they were trained — the work that they love to do,” she said.

Pharmacists will continue to fill time-sensitive medications and controlled substances at local stores as the company expands its use of robots.

“This is a complementary move to some of the health-care strategy they’ve laid out,” said Brian Tanquilut, an analyst for Jefferies.

Walgreens will share its fiscal second-quarter earnings on Thursday.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.