China Allowed Telemedicine in 2014; Korea Starts Remote Care 11 Years Later, With Drug Delivery Still Blocked by Pharmacist Act — "Delayed Digital Transition May Force Korea to Use Chinese Robots"
The latest approval is expected to enable China to respond more closely to nighttime emergency demand for pharmaceuticals. According to Chinese medical insurance statistics, nighttime pharmaceutical orders (10 p.m. to 8 a.m.) account for 20% of total orders, yet fewer than 10% of pharmacies nationwide operate 24 hours, fueling persistent concerns about supply shortages. In response, the Beijing municipal government announced an "Action Plan for AI Application Development in the Medical and Health Sector" in December last year, paving the way for the approval.
Zhao Yuli, chief strategy officer (CSO) of Galbot, said, "Our humanoid robots equipped with proprietary identification, sorting and packaging technology perform autonomous tasks, enabling us to meet pharmaceutical demand during late-night hours and in remote areas." He added, "Drug expiration dates are managed digitally, and products nearing expiry are immediately pulled from sale."
Galbot plans to expand its smart pharmacies and unmanned convenience stores from approximately 200 locations currently to more than 1,000 by the end of this year. "Going forward, our self-diagnosis systems could replace doctors and nurses for early disease detection and other health applications," Zhao said.
To be sure, full automation of prescription drugs has not yet been achieved due to limitations under current law. Pharmacists must still personally review prescriptions and provide medication counseling, making some level of human involvement unavoidable. Perhaps for this reason, unlike fully unmanned contact lens stores, the pharmacy had several staff members in pharmacist gowns working alongside the humanoid robots. However, once a pharmacist completes a final review of the prescription, robots can locate the drugs, divide them into individual doses, and handle packaging and dispatch — substantially reducing pharmacists' routine workload compared to before. China's robot innovation is taking place in a vastly different regulatory environment from Korea, where even over-the-counter household medicines are sold at convenience stores only on an extremely limited basis. An official from the Haidian District Market Supervision Administration surnamed Ma said, "Robots handle the dispensing role and process repetitive tasks, while pharmacists focus on prescription review and medication counseling."
That said, the humanoid robots Galbot showcased that day still showed gaps that need to be addressed. The company demonstrated a robot moving contact lenses but omitted a demonstration of the core processes — selecting drugs, packaging them and dispatching them. This appeared to be because the robots have not yet learned the locations of drugs stored in the dispensing room. In fact, a humanoid robot installed inside the pharmacy was quietly moved out of position once reporting began, restricting filming. At an unmanned robot convenience store about a 10-minute walk away, the robots also displayed clumsy movements on several occasions. When a reporter ordered a sports drink, the robot failed to grasp it multiple times. The robot, which introduced itself as "Xiao Gai" and initiated small talk, gave a witty reply when asked how many hours it works per day — "I work 24 hours, but I'm always fully charged when you come." Yet when asked how many languages it speaks, it gave an unrelated answer: "I haven't learned to dance yet."
Korea, by contrast, did not pass the revision of the Medical Service Act providing a legal basis for telemedicine until late 2025 — unlike China, which allowed non-face-to-face medical consultations in 2014. Korea was already more than a decade behind at the starting line. Moreover, Korea cannot even receive medicines by quick delivery or courier, let alone through robots. The Pharmacist Act, which mandates that medicines must be sold by pharmacists in person inside pharmacies, has not been amended. The Korean Pharmaceutical Association has strongly opposed introducing drug delivery, arguing it could lead to misuse and abuse of medicines and create unclear liability in case of side effects. As a result, drug delivery eligibility remains strictly limited to the same groups as in pilot programs — residents of islands and remote areas, patients confirmed with Class 1 or 2 infectious diseases, long-term care recipients, registered persons with disabilities, and patients with rare diseases. A patient who receives a telemedicine consultation after local clinics have closed must still search for an open pharmacy to obtain the prescribed medication. This is why critics say the system has been reduced to a half-measure, with the government refusing to allow drug delivery out of deference to the Korean Pharmaceutical Association's opposition.
The pharmacist cartel is blocking pharmaceutical distribution innovation at every turn. The "convenience store over-the-counter medicine" system, introduced in 2012 to ease the public's difficulty in purchasing medicines when pharmacies are closed, has remained stagnant for 13 years. Originally, 13 product categories — including five types of fever and pain relievers, four digestive medicines, two cold medicines, and two types of medicated patches — were approved for sale at 24-hour convenience stores, but the number of available products has actually decreased as some have been discontinued. Kwon Yong-jin, a professor at Seoul National University Hospital's Public Healthcare Center, said, "Korean citizens are having an experience found in no other country in the world — meeting doctors remotely but having to meet pharmacists in person." He added, "There is a high probability that the government and politicians, by catering to pharmacists' interests, will delay the digital transition and end up having to use robots from other countries."
