Mar 16 2013
Medbox, Inc., a leader in providing industry specific consulting services and patented systems to the medical and retail industries worldwide, announced acquiring a 50% partnership stake in MedVend, LLC, a Michigan based bio-tech company that developed a patented automated medicine dispensing machine used for traditional prescription pharmaceutical dispensing.
The deal involved cash and a restricted stock component totaling up to $5,150,000. The amount includes a $300,000 capital infusion and additional loans if needed for operating expenses into a jointly controlled new corporation (MedVend, Inc.) that will operate the business on a going forward basis. Besides infusion capital and other such loans, any equity payments included within the deal may be paid in cash or issuance of restricted MDBX common stock, at Medbox's sole discretion, after one year from execution.
MedVend's Automated Medication Dispenser (AMD) is a remote pharmacy that dispenses medication. Each AMD is located in convenient locations such as the lobby of a physician's office, urgent-cares, hospitals and pharmacies. The AMD uses state-of-the-art video and e-scripting technologies to provide patients with remote, face-to-face consultation with a pharmacist and to have their prescription medications filled in less than one minute. A patient simply touches the display monitor, enters their date of birth and a unique four-digit code issued to them at the point of care. The AMD provides the patient with their bottled medication interaction report, prescription and receipt all in less than one minute. If a patient has questions regarding their medication they can simply pick up the phone located on the AMD and they will be immediately connected with the pharmacist who appears on screen via two-way video conferencing.
The company has exclusive rights to Patent Number US7689318, an asset now jointly owned by Medbox. A summary of the patent is as follows:
"An inventory control and prescription management and dispensing system including a dispensing vault for storing and dispensing prescriptions in communication with a central computer system which communicates with prescription providers, insurance companies and other third parties. The vault includes robotic means for dispensing pre-filled prescriptions with the aid of RFIDs, barcodes or other means for verifying the medication to be dispensed. The vault uses patient biometrics, a patient registration system, insurance information and doctor information to process the transaction and dispense a specifically labeled pre-filled prescription to the patient."
Medvend enjoys many different revenue streams and benefits, as listed below:
MedVend has 5 main revenue streams:
- Sale of fully Automated Medication Dispensing Systems
- Sale of Medication
- Flat Management fee per dispensed Rx
- Marketing Programs on Automated Medication Dispensing Systems
- Monetizing anonymous data points through sale of data to Pharmaceutical R & D and marketing companies
Benefits to Medical center, Physician office, Urgent cares, and ER's:
- Profit Center for Healthcare facility
- Unparalleled convenience to Patients for competitive edge
- 100% write off under Tax rule 179 and Tax Code 44
- Assist practice in meeting their meaningful use requirement
- Assist the Hospital in reducing the attrition rate of patients coming back from standard nursing facilities (SNF's) by obtaining their meds prior to leaving the hospital.
Patient Benefits:
- Unparalleled convenience
- Competitive Rx cost
- Addressing their ailment at the point of care
- A higher quality assurance through automation on the prescription fulfillment
The company has already passed beta testing and currently has several machines in the field and is currently working with several large hospital groups to bring this unparalleled level of convenience to patients across the country by the end of 2013.
"MedVend adds a piece of the puzzle that Medbox was missing in the traditional medicine dispensing sector. The ability to label medications, video conference with pharmacists, have video confirmations in real-time as to the exact medication dispensed and to whom, is truly the future of convenience and accuracy in a traditional pharmaceutical setting," stated Dr. Bruce Bedrick , CEO of Medbox, Inc. "We were fortunate to add MedVend and its valuable patent to our ever expanding portfolio of patents and companies. MedVend needed expansion capital and Medbox answered their request. Now we are a team."