With a soft whir, a G1 robot made by Galbot (Chinese name: Yinhe Tongrong) sprang to life from its charging dock the moment an order came through on Meituan, China's delivery app. It took just one minute for the robot to locate the correct contact lens box among shelves of products in a warehouse, package it, and place it in a pickup locker for a delivery driver.
This was the scene at a contact lens store inside a "robot smart warehouse" in Beijing's Haidian district, visited on the 23rd of this month. "The task accuracy rate is 99.95%," a Galbot official said.
China can now see robots in pharmacies as well. Galbot's smart pharmacy recently obtained a "pharmaceutical business license" from the Haidian District Market Supervision Bureau in Beijing, enabling it to sell not only contact lenses — classified as Class 3 medical devices — but also over-the-counter and prescription drugs using humanoid robots. At the pharmacy this reporter visited, a robot stood beside shelves stocked with more than 5,000 to 6,000 products, including prescription drugs, OTC medicines, and medical devices. Doctors and pharmacists still handle consultations and prescriptions, but since telemedicine consultations, remote prescriptions, and drug delivery are available, patients can receive medications at home after a robot sorts, packages, and hands them to a delivery driver.
Sorting, Packaging and Shipping Among 6,000 Drugs — Around-the-Clock Unmanned Operation Imminent
This license is expected to help China respond more effectively to nighttime emergency demand for pharmaceuticals. According to China's medical insurance statistics, nighttime orders (10 p.m. to 8 a.m.) account for 20% of pharmaceutical purchases, yet fewer than 10% of pharmacies nationwide operate 24 hours, a supply gap that has been a persistent issue. In response, Beijing announced an "Action Plan for AI Application Development in Healthcare" last December, paving the way for this license.
Zhao Yuli, Galbot's chief strategy officer, said, "Our humanoid robot, equipped with proprietary identification, sorting, and packaging technology, performs autonomous tasks to meet pharmaceutical demand during late-night hours and in remote areas." He added, "Drug expiration dates are also managed digitally, and products nearing expiry are immediately removed from sale."
Galbot plans to expand its network of smart pharmacies and unmanned convenience stores from roughly 200 currently to more than 1,000 by the end of this year. "In the future, self-diagnosis systems could replace some doctor and nurse roles, enabling applications in healthcare such as early disease detection," Zhao said.
Of course, full automation has not yet been achieved for prescription drugs due to current legal constraints. Prescription review and medication counseling must be performed by pharmacists, making a certain level of human involvement unavoidable. Indeed, perhaps for this reason, unlike the fully unmanned contact lens store, the pharmacy had several staff members in pharmacist gowns working alongside the humanoid robot. However, once a pharmacist completes the final prescription review, the robot can locate the prescribed drugs, sort them into doses, and handle packaging and shipping, significantly reducing pharmacists' routine workload compared to before. China's robot innovation is unfolding in a regulatory environment quite different from South Korea, where even convenience store sales of household medicines are extremely restricted. Ma Xin, an official at the Haidian District Market Supervision Bureau, said, "The robot handles the dispensing role, processing repetitive tasks, while pharmacists focus on prescription review and medication counseling."
China Demonstrates Lens Handling but Keeps Drug Packaging Under Wraps
Still, the humanoid robot Galbot showcased that day revealed gaps that need to be addressed. The company demonstrated the robot moving contact lenses but omitted a demonstration of the core process of selecting, packaging, and shipping drugs. This appeared to be because the robot had not yet learned the locations of medicines placed in the dispensing room. In fact, a humanoid robot that had been positioned inside the pharmacy was quietly moved once reporting began, and filming was restricted. At an unmanned robot convenience store about a 10-minute walk away, the robot also displayed clumsy movements multiple times. When a reporter ordered a sports drink, the robot failed to grasp it several 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." However, when asked how many languages it speaks, it gave an unrelated answer: "I haven't learned to dance yet." China appears to be taking a strategic approach of lifting regulations on pharmaceutical dispensing and sales without waiting for robot technology to fully mature, aiming to create a virtuous cycle.
China Allowed Telemedicine in 2014; Korea Starts Remote Care 11 Years Later — Pharmacy Law Still Blocks Drug Delivery
South Korea, however, did not pass a revision to the Medical Service Act providing a legal basis for telemedicine until late 2025 — unlike China, which allowed telemedicine in 2014. Korea was already more than 10 years behind at the starting line. Moreover, in Korea, receiving medication via quick-delivery service or courier is impossible, let alone by robot. This is because the Pharmacists Act, which requires pharmacists to sell drugs face-to-face inside a pharmacy, has not been amended. The Korean Pharmaceutical Association strongly opposes drug delivery, arguing it could lead to drug misuse and create unclear liability in the event of side effects. As a result, drug delivery eligibility has been strictly limited to the same groups as in the pilot program: 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 neighborhood clinics have closed must still search for an open pharmacy to pick up the prescribed medication. Critics say the system has become half-baked because the government, wary of pushback from the Korean Pharmaceutical Association, has refused to allow drug delivery.
The pharmacist cartel is blocking pharmaceutical distribution innovation at every turn. The "convenience store household medicine" system, introduced in 2012 to ease the public's difficulty in purchasing drugs when pharmacies are closed, has remained stagnant for 13 years. Initially, 13 items — including five types of pain relievers, four digestive medicines, two cold medicines, and two medicated patches — were approved for 24-hour sale at convenience stores, but some products have since been discontinued, actually reducing the number of available items. 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, "With the government and politicians kowtowing to pharmacists, the digital transformation is being delayed, and Korea will most likely end up using robots made in other countries."
