Queue raises funding to build fully autonomous pharmacy

Queue is applying automation to improve prescription fulfillment. Source: Queue

Queue today emerged from stealth with an autonomous pharmacy system and $12.6 million in seed funding. The company said its system is designed to make prescription fulfillment faster, more accessible, and cost-effective while supporting rigorous safety and verification protocols.

“Pharmacy in America is structurally broken,” stated Josh Liu, co-founder and chief technology officer of Queue. “Queue is a complete reimagining of how medications get dispensed, verified, and delivered. We built the machine the industry has needed for decades, and the demand we’re seeing proves it.”

Pharmacies are facing “overwhelming workloads and job dissatisfaction,” according to Drugstore News . Schools are graduating 3,000 to 4,000 fewer pharmacists than will be needed over the next five to six years, it said.

Pharmacy technician vacancies have been reported at 40% or higher, reported the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. As one pharmacist noted , employee shortages can increase the risk of human error.

In addition, pharmacies are losing money on a growing share of prescriptions due to “negative reimbursements,” which put the industry under even more pressure. Researchers at USC and UC Berkeley found that nearly one in three pharmacies has closed since 2010 , leading to “pharmacy deserts.” Because of these structural forces, the $670.6 billion U.S. retail pharmacy market has few viable paths forward.

Queue was co-founded by Nick Desai, CEO, a six-time venture-backed entrepreneur who previously founded and led Heal, a home healthcare company that raised more than $200 million, and Liu, whose experience spans Tesla and Zipline.

“We think that robotics and AI should be applied in a way that actually enables greater human flourishing,” Liu told The Robot Report . “In our particular case, that would mean enabling more connection with people and enabling better service and health outcomes for the general public.”

Palo Alto, Calif.-based Queue said its robotic system fills and verifies prescriptions from sealed wholesale pill bottles without requiring an on-site pharmacist. It said this will enable lower-cost prescription fulfillment and broader pharmacy access across retail , healthcare , and other settings.

Each cell in the system can hold thousands of pills, and it can fill a vial of 60 pills every 30 seconds, explained Liu. Queue has developed software for security and ease of use, initially by pharmacists and eventually directly by customers.