Pharmacy Chain Introduces Robot Technology

Rigla, asubsidiary ofpharmaceutical company Protek, has opened apharmacy inYekaterinburg where customers are served byrobots.

Inthe pharmacy, anemployee enters alist ofmedicines, anda robot collects them within 10 to15 seconds. Theorder is then transported byconveyor belt tothe cash register.

Therobot can also sort anddistribute medicines atthe warehouse. Apharmacy employee puts them onthe conveyor belt, while therobot scans them, determines their size andplaces them ona shelf.

Theuse ofrobots has enabled thepharmacy toemploy just five people, compared with 10 atconventional drugstores, andto use space more efficiently, Rigla said.

Theinstallation ofthe robots cost 200,000 euros ($256,000), while thepharmacy's revenue is projected atabout 20 million rubles ($637,350) per month. If theproject is successful, thetechnology will also be used atother Rigla pharmacies.

Russia's largest pharmacy chain, A5, may follow suit andintroduce thetechnology, said Andrei Gusev, CEO ofthe chain. He said Paris' five largest pharmacies were equipped with similar robots.

Currently, Russia only has afew drugstores that use robots, including inVladivostok, said Yelena Nevolina, executive director ofthe Pharmacy Guild, anindustry association. But thetechnology is not widespread inRussia because its costs are high, Gusev said.

Thecutting-edge equipment allows pharmacies toget more accurate information about their inventory andincreases control over business processes, said Per Hong, amanaging partner atA.T. Kearney inRussia.

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Pharmacy Chain Introduces Robot Technology