Equashield received the first purchase orders for its Equashield Pro closed-system compounding robot, the company said earlier this month, and plans to start installing the systems in the second quarter of this year.
The company’s robotic system is designed to compound patient-specific chemotherapy doses and prepare other hazardous drugs quickly, using an optimized process to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. The Equashield Pro system includes dose verification software to limit potential medication dosage errors.
The first installations, which will serve as validation sites, are slated to take place at Rambam Medical Center in Israel and another, unnamed hospital. Equashield added that it plans to install ten additional robots at hospitals in Austria, Italy, Greece and Spain.
“Automation is the natural direction for the hazardous drug compounding industry, and the Pro, which utilizes our Equashield CSTD, is ready to provide the safest method for efficiently compounding hazardous drugs,” co-founder Marino Kriheli said in prepared remarks.
“The market has expressed a clear need for automation that not only provides a high throughput to manage peak chemotherapy volume, but increases the safety of pharmacy compounding professionals, protecting them from health risks associated with hazardous drug exposure,” Adi Shor, VP of sales at Row International, said.
“Other compounding robots currently available neither provide the level of safety nor the efficiency compared to the Equashield Pro. Furthermore, the Pro allows pharmacists to spend more time with patients and help in making prescription decisions on the nursing floor, all while remotely monitoring pharmacy compounding processes,” Shor added.
