EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — The fight continues to try and stop so many pharmacies from closing.
On Tuesday, some state lawmakers publicly backed five new bills that they say will fix a broken system. In fact, experts say 24 independent pharmacies closed last year in Minnesota alone and more are expected this year.
In the meantime, a unique business based in Eden Prairie is stepping up to maintain access for people in areas called pharmacy deserts — and its CEO says it combines the security of an ATM with the simplicity of a pop machine.
Called InstyMeds, it was started 25 years ago and its machines are available worldwide, full of dozens of medications you can get with a push of a button.
Its machines dispense 350,000 acute medications a year that are mostly under $10 from amoxicillin to Tylenol.
"We think we were just way ahead of our time and with now the pharmacy closures that are happening, we see a pent up demand for our product," said InstyMeds CEO Brad Schraut.
The machines are 2,000 pounds and surrounded by several inches of stainless steel. Patients enter a secure barcode that matches the prescription from their doctor that is scanned multiple times by high-tech software.
"In 20 years, we’ve never ever dispensed the wrong medicine to the wrong patient," said Schraut.
Regulation requires the machine and patient be in the same building as a doctor, meaning they're usually located in emergency rooms and urgent care spaces. The machines are in 29 states where access to pharmacies is already low and barriers are high.
"Some of our customers, for instance, in Thief River Falls, their only alternative was to drive 60 miles to Grand Fork, North Dakota," said Schraut. "If people aren't getting their medicine, they're not getting better and we're connected to 27,000 health plans throughout the United States to be able to cover that for the patients."
There's even a 24/7 hotline, in any language, to answer questions.
"We think the next 5 years looks very promising," said Schraut, who says he's amassed more than 200 clients from Allina to Mayo Clinic who either buy or rent the machines from Schraut.
There also aren't any other companies like this in the states, but InstyMeds did partner with something similar in the Netherlands, where looser regulations allow them to specialize in refills and are dispensing up to ten million prescriptions a year.
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