MedPal AI (MPAL) has opened its new robotic pharmacy dispensing and distribution facility at Sarus Court in Runcorn after receiving NHS approval for the site. The new hub is the company's largest dispensing facility to date and has been designed to support more than 10,000 prescription items per day once fully operational.
The 23,000 square foot facility will replace MedPal AI's existing Runcorn pharmacy distribution centre while operating alongside its Swaffham site. Commissioning is taking place in phases, with the facility expected to process more than 2,000 prescription items per day from this month before scaling to its full designed capacity.
MedPal AI has invested more than £1 million in robotics, automation and its proprietary pharmacy technology platform. The Board believes the combination of automation, workflow design and a direct-to-patient operating model will create one of the UK's most sophisticated and lowest-cost pharmacy dispensing platforms at scale.
At full capacity, Sarus Court is expected to process more than 300,000 prescription items per month. The Company noted this compares favourably with publicly reported dispensing volumes for major online pharmacy operators and also exceeds the footprint of Boots' recently opened 20,000 square foot automated dispensing hub in Basingstoke.
"Sarus Court is a major statement of intent for MedPal AI," said MedPal AI Chief Executive Officer Jason Drummond.
"It is our largest robotic pharmacy distribution facility to date, NHS-approved for the new location, and designed to give us the operational headroom to scale from about 2,000 prescription items per day today to more than 10,000 items per day when fully completed."
He added: "This facility gives MedPal AI the scale, automation and resilience required to support the next phase of our growth across NHS dispensing, private prescriptions, AI-enabled patient engagement and direct-to-patient pharmacy fulfilment."
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The opening of Sarus Court marks another significant milestone in MedPal AI's expansion strategy. The combination of NHS approval, increased automation and substantial dispensing capacity provides the infrastructure needed to support future growth while improving operating efficiency. As prescription volumes increase, the new facility should strengthen the company's ability to scale its AI-enabled pharmacy platform across both NHS and private healthcare markets.