Raphael Stevens

Walgreens Boots Alliance is opening robot-powered micro-fulfillment centers across the U.S. to fill customers’ prescriptions as the role of stores and pharmacists change.
The drugstore chain plans to open 22 facilities across the country.
By 2025, as much as half of Walgreens’ total prescription volume could be filled at the automated hubs, said Rex Swords, who oversees the network of facilities as Walgreens’ group president of centralized services, operations and planning.

Walgreens is using automation to fill more of customers’ prescriptions. Inside of a Dallas area facility, bright yellow robotic arms hold pill bottles up to dispensers, which release tablets like a carefully calibrated vending machine.
Melissa Repko | CNBC

NORTHLAKE, Texas — Bright yellow robotic arms are becoming a bigger part of Walgreens’ workforce.
Inside of a large facility in the Dallas area, they fill thousands of prescriptions for customers who take medications to manage or treat high blood pressure, diabetes or other conditions. Each robot can fill 300 prescriptions in an hour, the company said — roughly the same number that a typical Walgreens pharmacy with a handful of staff may do in a day.

Walgreens Boots Alliance is opening the automated, centralized hubs to keep up in the fast-changing pharmacy industry. The pandemic has intensified the drugstore chain’s need to stay relevant as online pharmacies siphon off sales and more customers have items from toilet paper to toothpaste delivered to their doorstep. The global health crisis has also heightened demand for pharmacists, as hospitals and drugstores hired them to administer Covid vaccines and tests.
That has forced Walgreens and its competitors, CVS Health and Rite Aid, to rethink the role of their stores and pharmacists.
Walgreens’ new CEO, former Starbucks operating chief Roz Brewer, wants to make health care the company’s “growth engine.” It acquired the majority stake of VillageMD, a primary care company, and iA, a pharmacy and health-care automation technology company that is helping it build out the centralized hubs. It is exploring a potential sale of its U.K.-based Boots business.
By 2025, as much as half of Walgreens’ prescription volume from stores could be filled at the automated centers, said Rex Swords, who oversees facilities as Walgreens’ group president of centralized services, operations and planning.
That will free up more of pharmacists’ time to provide health care, Brewer said in an interview with CNBC’s Bertha Coombs.

“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,” she said.
Pharmacists will continue to fill time-sensitive medications and controlled substances at local stores as the company expands its use of robots.
Brian Tanquilut, an analyst for Jefferies, said the automation could help Walgreens focus on ways to differentiate from online pharmacies suh as Amazon-owned PillPack and Capsule, and CVS, which owns health insurer Aetna and pharmacy benefits manager Caremark.
“This is a complementary move to some of the health-care strategy they’ve laid out,” he said.
CVS uses robotics to assist in filling prescriptions in its highest volume stores, but through a spokesperson, the company declined to say how much of its overall volume is filled by automation.
Walgreens will share its fiscal second-quarter earnings on Thursday.

Pill bottles and caps move through a choreographed and highly automated assembly line in the Dallas area. Walgreens is building similar micro-fulfilment centers across the country.
Melissa Repko | CNBC

A glimpse of the future

The robot-powered center in Northlake, roughly 36 miles northwest of Dallas, offers a glimpse of Walgreens’ future. It is staffed by 220 workers, including a handful of licensed pharmacists.
Each day, about 35,000 prescriptions are filled at the Dallas area facility — but eventually that number will increase to as many as 100,000 daily, Swords said.
Over the next three years, Walgreens plans to grow to a total of 22 facilities that serve over 8,500 of the company’s nearly 9,000 stores. It has opened two others near Phoenix and Memphis.
Instead of getting filled by hand, pill bottles and caps move through a choreographed and highly automated assembly line.

Canisters of pills go into robot-powered pods at Walgreens’ automated facility in the Dallas area.
Melissa Repko | CNBC

A team of workers feed robot pods containers of pills. Each medication gets its own canister and pill counter. A yellow robotic arm grabs a labeled pill bottle and holds it up to the canister, which dispenses pills like a carefully calibrated vending machine.
Then, before the pill bottle leaves the pod, it get topped with a cap.
In the Dallas facility, the robot pods can dispense about 900 different medications. Some common medications are in multiple dispensers to keep up with the workload.
Pill bottles travel along the track. At one station, some get paired up with a patient’s other medications or the rest of his or her 90-day medication supply. Scanners read bar codes, so printers can prepare paperwork and bags that customers will later pick up.
Those prescriptions — now packaged in a bag — are ferried by Roomba-like rolling robots. The devices sort prescriptions and drop them into plastic totes that head to the same pharmacy location.

A worker places filled and packaged prescriptions on rolling robots at Walgreens’ centralized facility in the Dallas area. The robots help sort the prescriptions and drop them into plastic totes that head to the same pharmacy location.
Melissa Repko | CNBC

About 30% of prescriptions at the facility skip the automated assembly line, Swords said. Instead, workers manually prepare items like asthma inhalers, eye drops and temperature-controlled medications.
There are security and safety checks throughout the process, including pharmacists who verify the medications in canisters and pill bottles, electronic locks on the robot pods that can detect and stop dispensing if a canister is in the wrong spot, and zip ties on totes that transport the filled prescriptions to stores.
The facilities do not yet fill direct mail prescriptions, but that is on the program’s roadmap, Swords said.

More hands-on pharmacists

Trucks from AmeriSourceBergen drive the ready-to-pickup prescriptions to more than 500 drugstores across most of Texas, parts of Arkansas and parts of Louisiana — a radius of about 400 miles. The same trucks also deliver wholesale drugs to those pharmacies.
To customers, the change to automation would be hard to detect — aside from slightly different packaging.
For Walgreens, the investment could translate into cost savings and new streams of revenue. Walgreens President John Standley said at the company’s investor day in October that the micro-fulfillment centers will reduce the company’s working capital by $1.1 billion by 2025.
As more prescriptions get filled by robots, he said pharmacists can take on other duties that Walgreens can bill to insurers or customers, such as testing and treating medical conditions like strep or the flu and writing prescriptions for people at risk of HIV.
For example, as part of a pilot program, pharmacists in Ohio are counseling and managing care for patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Rick Fernandez, a regional health care director for Walgreens in the Dallas area, said the pandemic underscored the value of pharmacists and how they can be used in smarter ways.
“It’s kind of dreary to be filling scripts all day long,” he said. “What we were hearing was pharmacy was more of an asset that people gave us credit for.”
Jefferies’ Tanquilut said the automation can reduce staffing needs and turn pharmacists into more hands-on medical providers. It’s not clear how that may play out — whether that will mean smaller pharmacy staff or a workforce that’s the same size or bigger, but with different roles. Another factor is state laws. Walgreens is urging state lawmakers to allow pharmacists to provide a longer list of health-care services.
The challenge, he said, will be convincing customers and insurers to pay — rather than expecting free advice.
“One of the key questions is ‘Are you getting paid for these things?'” he said. “The idea or the hope is that over time, there will be actual reimbursement for them providing that service to patients.”
Join us for Healthy Returns on Wednesday, March 30 to hear health care experts, including Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Roz Brewer, discuss health tech investing, the drug market, health equity, wellness programs and more. Register here.

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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told CNBC Saturday that he’d welcome sanctioned Russian oligarchs into the country as both tourists and investors.
It came a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that “certain capital groups” could “park their facilities with us,” in a seeming reference to the arrival of oligarch yachts.
The comments have sparked speculation that Turkey may be actively encouraging investment from blacklisted billionaires —but analysts warn any such gains could be short-sighted.

Eclipse, the private luxury yacht of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, anchors at Cruise Port in Marmaris district of Mugla, Turkiye on March 23, 2022.
Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Russian oligarch wealth is on the hunt for a new home, and Turkey is quickly establishing itself as a welcome host.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told CNBC Saturday that he’d welcome sanctioned Russian oligarchs into the country as both tourists and investors, as long as their business dealings adhered to international law.

It came a day after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that “certain capital groups” could “park their facilities with us,” in what was seen as a direct reference to the recent arrival of several Russian-owned luxury assets in Turkey, including two luxury yachts and a private jet belonging to billionaire Roman Abramovich.
The comments have sparked speculation that Turkey — a non-EU country but a NATO member — may be actively encouraging investment from blacklisted billionaires as it seeks to shore up its embattled economy. Already, wealthy Russians are actively seeking investments there, according to Reuters reports.
But any prospective gains could be short-sighted for a country orchestrating a delicate balancing act between Russia and the West.
“Attracting Russian money could hurt Turkey in the long-term,” Defne Arslan, a senior director at the Atlantic Council in Turkey and former economist for the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, told CNBC.

Striking a fine balance

Turkey is seeking to tread a fine line in the ongoing war in Ukraine.

While strongly criticizing Moscow’s unprovoked invasion, it has stopped short of implementing sanctions like those imposed by the U.S., EU, U.K. and others, saying it opposes them on principle.
Instead, it has adopted the role of a neutral mediator, facilitating peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. Negotiations in Istanbul on Tuesday appeared to raise hopes of a breakthrough after Moscow agreed to cut its military assault on Kyiv and Chernihiv, while Ukrainian negotiators proposed adopting neutral status in exchange for security guarantees.

If they’re parking their yacht, that’s OK. But Ankara will be very cognizant about Turkey becoming grounds for sanctions-busting.

Emre Peker
director and Turkey specialist at Eurasia Group

Turkey’s stance of nominal neutrality is largely understood given its close economic and diplomatic ties with Russia, particularly regarding energy, defense, trade and tourism. As such, Western allies have not pressured Turkey to join sanctions, nor are they likely to punish it for not doing so.
That makes it a legitimate outpost for assets belonging to sanctioned Russians. Indeed, an influx of foreign investment and luxury assets could provide a boon for the beleaguered Turkish economy, which slipped into crisis mode last September as unorthodox interest rate cuts pushed already spiraling inflation higher.
However, Western tolerance is likely to wane should Turkey begin actively soliciting sanctioned wealth, according to Emre Peker, director and Turkey specialist at political risk consultancy Eurasia Group.

“If they’re parking their yacht, that’s OK,” Peker said. “But Ankara will be very cognizant about Turkey becoming grounds for sanctions-busting and will be careful to prevent that.”
The Turkish Embassy in London did not respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

A flailing economy

Turkey can scarcely afford to be hit with secondary sanctions given the pressure that the war and resultant Russian sanctions have already inflicted on its economy.
Last month, inflation soared to a 20-year high of 54.4% amid a crash in the lira and soaring commodity prices. Data fully reflecting the impact of the war are yet to be released.
“Russia’s attack on Ukraine is making Turkey’s economic situation more precarious,” Peker said.
“The ramifications are clear,” he continued. “Inflationary pressures are higher, destabilizing the Turkish economy. The fallout of sanctions will curtail or halt tourism from Russia and Ukraine, which accounted for about one-third of inbound tourism. And it will affect Turkish investment into Ukraine and Russia.”
Meantime, Erdogan is keen to uphold Turkey’s reputation as an independent mediator in the ongoing conflict, seeking to win favor both at home and abroad ahead of elections in 2023.
“Erdogan is desperate to get through to the elections next year,” Timothy Ash, senior emerging markets sovereign strategist at BlueBay Asset Management, told CNBC.

An advertisement for Starbucks seen on the motorway near Istanbul on Tuesday, 17 October 2017.
Nurphoto | Getty Images

Still, there are opportunities for Turkey to shore up its economy and benefit from the movement of wealth from Russia without drawing political and economic ire.
That includes attracting investment from some of the 450 Western brands that have so far withdrawn from Russia, according to the Atlantic Council’s Arslan.
“If it plays it right, I think it can be a huge opportunity for Turkey, not only staying in line with Western allies but potentially attracting investment from foreign companies,” she said, highlighting the similarities between Russian and Turkish geography and production lines among other factors.
Indeed, Erdogan said last week that Turkey’s “door is open” to companies looking to relocate their business outside of Russia.
“Not only American companies, but also many brands and groups from around the world are leaving Russia. Of course, our door is open to those who come to our country,” he said.

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Waymo, a division of Alphabet, became the first company to offer such a fleet to the public in late 2020.
Waymo’s service area is limited to a roughly 50-square-mile area in the Phoenix suburbs of Chandler, Tempe, Mesa and Gilbert.
For me, riding in a self-driving van with no one behind the wheel truly highlighted the potential of autonomous vehicles, which some believe will be a multitrillion-dollar market for investors.

Michael Wayland / CNBC

PHOENIX — “A ghost is driving the car.”
That’s what my 5-year-old daughter said as I FaceTimed her recently from the backseat of a Waymo autonomous vehicle in the suburbs here.

Motorists and pedestrians who passed by had a similar reaction. They pointed, stared and even gasped when they noticed there was no one in the driver’s seat.
It will take many more experiences like mine to usher in the age of the driverless car. While the commercialization of autonomous vehicles has been far more difficult than many thought just a few years ago, the benefits to riders and companies are real based on my recent experience.
The daunting task of taking the driver out of the vehicle can lead to safer roads, increase profit margins for companies and a create a better overall experience for riders. But the rollout has to be done cautiously and safely. Companies also need to demystify the experience by getting more people in the vehicles.
During my trip in Phoenix, the steering wheel in the modified Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivan moved with every turn and lane change, as the vehicle used a suite of cameras, radar and sensors such as lidar to “see” its surroundings.
The vehicle also displayed what it was seeing – such as other cars, buildings and pedestrians – on screens in the back of the vehicle. The screens assist riders in knowing what the car is sensing, which could put them more at ease with what’s happening.

Waymo One self-driving vehicles display what they’re “seeing” (other cars, stoplights, buildings, pedestrians, etc.) on screens in the back of the vehicles.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

I have been in a handful of highly automated and self-driving vehicles, but they’ve all included backup safety drivers behind the wheel. That’s not the case for Waymo’s fleet of self-driving vehicles in the Phoenix suburbs of Chandler, Tempe, Mesa and Gilbert.
While some Waymo vehicles have safety drivers during testing and inclement weather, the rest, such as the two I spent more than an hour riding in, did not have anyone other than myself in them.

True potential

For me, the experience was liberating. It highlighted the true potential of autonomous vehicles, which some believe will be a multitrillion-dollar industry.
Shortly after hailing my first vehicle through the Waymo One app (like you would with Uber or Lyft), I was at ease with my ghost driver. In fact, I even preferred it after being on a plane for four hours and riding with two human drivers earlier in the day.
Being alone without a driver allowed me to have a little serenity. It enabled me to be productive without being interrupted or worrying about being an annoying or inconsiderate passenger. I FaceTimed, tweeted, made calls and changed destinations several times without feeling like a nuisance. I even wrote most of this article while in the second van.

Being able to do such things is what companies have been promising self-driving vehicles would deliver for years. That’s in addition to increasing safety and saving massive amounts of capital by taking the driver – the most expensive cost for such companies – out of the vehicle.
But the reality is humans are unpredictable, and the amount of skill it takes to drive, whether it be to school or in a construction zone, was underappreciated. It’s taken far longer than most expected to get to where we are today, which isn’t too far. A lot of companies are doing private testing, but large fleets of autonomous vehicles that were promised by companies such as Uber, Lyft and General Motors are still not close to coming to fruition.
Waymo, a division of Alphabet, became the first company to offer such a fleet to the public in late 2020. Its service area is limited to a roughly 50-square-mile area but it shows potential for these technologies. The company says it has given tens of thousands of rides since launching publicly in October 2020.
Waymo isn’t alone in this. There are others such as Amazon-backed Zoox, Cruise and Argo AI that are testing, and even operating, in limited areas across the country. However, they’re not taking fares and operating for public use in as big and meaningful way as Waymo has been doing. Cruise, a majority-owned subsidiary of GM, is getting close to doing so at night in San Francisco.

Mostly smooth, but some issues

Overall, the two Waymo vehicles I rode in operated as safely as many ride-hailing drivers I’ve been with, including one I had to take to get to the service area for the self-driving vehicles. They handled neighborhood speed bumps, braking and acceleration with ease. After the novelty wore off, I was at ease with how the vehicles were handling most situations.
But the rides weren’t flawless. Of course, neither are human drivers, but one of the promises of self-driving vehicles is the reduction, even elimination, of accidents. So, as safe as human drivers doesn’t cut it.

A Waymo One self-driving can goes through a neighborhood instead of going straight and making a left turn at a busier intersection, as shown on a screen inside the vehicle.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

The route selections also were odd. The vehicles seemed to sometimes prioritize going through neighborhood streets instead of taking left-hand turns or using median turnarounds (see the above picture). Waymo says the vehicles may choose a different route to avoid traffic.
There also were instances of hesitant, almost harsh, braking and steering movements. At one point, the first vehicle I was in also stopped in the middle of a crosswalk before deciding to reverse out of it. (My colleague Jennifer Elias experienced some similar snafus involving fire lanes.)
Hailing the vehicle also is different than a traditional taxi or ride-hailing service. You have to be precise in where the pickup location will be for the vehicle.
In a crowded Walmart parking lot, I found myself running after the vehicle, which was going in and out or lanes attempting to get to my side of the street. It was annoying but about the same level of frustration I had when attempting to find my Uber driver at the airport.
The Waymo vehicles were in line with costs of ride-hailing services. In total, I spent $49.20 on two trips that totaled 26.5 miles and took 1 hour and 17 minutes. The cost per mile averaged to $1.86 a mile.
That compares with my human-driven ride-hailing trips to get to and from the autonomous taxis that averaged $1.62 per mile, excluding tips, which brought the amount up to $1.88 per mile.
My Waymo trips included going from one Walmart to another, then stopping for lunch before hailing my second vehicle to take me to a post office and then a Target near the northern border of where the vehicles can drive.

Waymo self-driving car

As I wrote in one of the vehicles, I was struck by the possibilities for self-driving vehicles, including for deliveries and consumers. Even in limited operations such as Waymo’s, the promises of these technologies are real, but so are the technological challenges, regulatory hurdles and unpredictability of human drivers.
Waymo and others need to get more “butts in seats” – an old adage of car dealers to sell vehicles – to experience autonomous vehicles. It’s the only way people, including younger generations, won’t believe ghosts are driving the vehicles.

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Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, Alpine F1’s Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon leave a meeting after practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia. Safety concerns rose after a missile attack just 7 miles from the circuit in Jeddah.
Clive Mason | Getty Images

Formula One’s drivers are preparing to ask for more input over where the sport races in future.
A number of drivers did not want to continue with the Saudi Arabian GP race weekend after Friday’s missile attack just seven miles from the Jeddah circuit.

The incident is said to have accelerated a desire from the drivers to discuss having more influence on the sport’s policy.
As Sky Sports News reported on Monday, the drivers are set for meetings with F1 bosses following the events of the weekend.
On the agenda will be the militant attack on the nearby Aramco oil facility.

Read more from Sky Sports

F1 will also present more details of the security measures which helped safeguard the Grand Prix, though the future of the event itself is not thought to be in doubt despite some drivers’ misgivings.
Why do drivers want more input on races?
F1 decides on the calendar and seek to be open and collaborative with their various stakeholders, including all 10 teams.
A number of drivers feel they are playing an ever more prominent role as the face of the sport and carrying the brand’s messaging to the public.
Drivers have recently had to answer awkward questions about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and the cancellation of the Russian Grand Prix following their invasion of Ukraine.
On influencing these big issues, Lewis Hamilton said in Jeddah: “We don’t decide where we go [to race]. I think we do have an opportunity to try — we are duty bound to try — and do what we can while we’re here.”

F1 has made greater driver engagement with the audience an integral part of its plans in the post-Bernie Ecclestone era.
Via digital and social media, fan interaction has been developed significantly in the last five years.
F1 intend to make a full assessment of what happened in Jeddah which will be shared with all stakeholders, including the drivers.
Meetings are expected to take place before the next Grand Prix in Melbourne Australia on April 10.

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