Rest home drug supplier takes over robotic pill-packer

A rest home pharmaceutical supplier has bought the nation's only robotic packaging system, as well as the company that owns it, the company said today.

Pharmacy One was a minority shareholder in Medication Packaging Systems Ltd (MPS) but said it had bought out the majority owner, Pharmacy Brands, parent company of the Amcal, Dispensary First and Unichem brands.

Robotic pharmaceutical packaging has been used in New Zealand for four years to fill sachets known as compliance packs.

Pharmacy One director Greg Macpherson said the system was increasingly being used by residential care operators to reduce error in handing out pills and to boost efficiency. But he said there had been only a limited pick-up of the technology in Pharmacy Brands chemist shops.

"In contrast, over 50 per cent of Pharmacy One's business involves the use of robotics."

It was dispensing one million pills each month, made up of 490 different medications, and the compliance packs were not only highly accurate but cut the time needed for medication rounds in rest homes by up to 30 per cent, Mr MacPherson said.

- NZPA