A Silicon Valley startup says it has built a pharmacy with no pharmacist behind the counter. Sealed bottles go in, filled and checked prescriptions come out, in about a minute.
The company, Queue, came out of stealth on Tuesday with a working machine and fresh money. It has raised a $12.6mn seed round led by AlleyCorp, it announced. That follows a $6mn pre-seed from Riot Ventures less than a year ago, and takes the total raised to $18.6mn. Ubiquity Ventures and House Capital also joined.
The product is a self-contained box that Queue calls the world’s first fully autonomous robotic pharmacy. Sealed wholesale bottles go in one end. Filled and verified prescription vials come out the other.
Queue says the process needs zero human involvement, dispenses up to 600 pills a minute, and stocks 250 different medications. It claims the unit cuts the cost to dispense by 96 per cent, and hands a patient their script in 60 seconds or less.
A fix for the pharmacy desert
