Walgreens Boots Alliance is opening 22 robot-powered micro-fulfillment centers across the U.S. to fill prescriptions, CNBC reported March 30.
Each robot can fill 300 prescriptions in an hour, roughly the same amount pharmacists are able to fill in a day. Pharmacists will continue to fill time-sensitive prescriptions and controlled substances.
As much as half of Walgreens' prescription volume could be filled at the centers by 2025, Rex Swords, Walgreens group president of centralized services, operations and planning, told CNBC.
"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," Roz Brewer, Walgreens CEO, told CNBC.