BD’s Vmax 160 Pharmacy Robot Lands First U.S. Deployment at Fairview

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) announced on September 14, 2026, that Fairview Health Services has become the first health system in the United States to deploy the BD Vmax 160, a next-generation pharmacy automation robot designed for high-volume, centralized outpatient pharmacy operations handling specialty therapies and refrigerated medicines.

Centralized Pharmacy Operations at Fairview

According to the announcement, Fairview operates one of the nation’s largest health system pharmacy networks, filling an average of 20,000 prescriptions per week and providing medication access for patients across Minnesota through 25 outpatient pharmacies and mail-order services. To keep pace with growing demand, the health system is investing in centralized pharmacy operations that expand medication access, increase fulfillment capacity and improve the experience for patients who rely on increasingly complex therapies.

The Vmax 160 deployment builds on Fairview’s broader collaboration with BD and its existing investment in pharmacy automation technologies, including the BD Parata Max 2 high-speed vial-filling robot. BD said the Vmax is widely used across Europe and introduces high-speed unit-of-use automation to the U.S. market, changing how boxed medications are stored, tracked and fulfilled in central-fill environments.

“The future of pharmacy care will be shaped by health systems that can meet patients where they are, while creating more efficient and scalable models for medication access,” said Matt Sassone, president of BD Pharmacy Automation. He described Fairview’s investment in centralized pharmacy services and intelligent automation as demonstrating how health systems can transform pharmacy operations and expand access to therapies for the communities they serve.

The announcement points to several pressures behind the shift toward centralized operations and automation: many of the medications driving pharmacy growth, including GLP-1s, biologics and other specialty therapies, are packaged, stored and fulfilled differently than traditional vial-based prescriptions, while retail pharmacy closures, an aging population, workforce shortages and the increasing prevalence of pharmacy deserts are creating new health care access challenges for patients.

BD Vmax 160 System Features

The Vmax 160 is purpose-built for centralized fulfillment environments and is designed to automate labor-intensive workflows. BD said the system helps pharmacies optimize inventory management, reduce manual dispensing activities and improve visibility into medication expiration dates, lot tracking and recall management.

Automated inventory replenishment through BD EasyLoad delivers a 3-second loading time per tote with 99.8% accuracy, BD reported, enabling overnight loading and inventory optimization. An automated labeling function is designed to eliminate time-consuming manual tasks while meeting labeling requirements for all 50 states. A cold-chain capability is designed for 2–8°C environments to support proper medication storage and enhance medication safety. A smart expiry detection feature flags and tracks expiration dates upon loading and automatically blocks expired medications from dispensing, which BD said helps reduce waste and support compliance.

Fairview’s Seven Lakes Central-Fill Facility

Fairview’s pharmacy expansion page describes a 150,000-square-foot facility in Shoreview, Minnesota, called Seven Lakes after the seven lakes within the city limits. John Pastor, president of Fairview Pharmacy Services, said Fairview invested $52 million in the facility, which services individuals and health systems across the country, and that the site was purposely designed to accommodate current needs with room to expand to meet future demand.

In fall 2025, Fairview’s Specialty and Mail Services Pharmacy, Home Infusion, Compounding Pharmacy, Wholesale Pharmacy, ClearScript and IntegraDose Compounding Services teams were scheduled to move to Seven Lakes, according to the page.

Fairview states that it will have the first installation of the BD Rowa Vmax in a central-fill pharmacy in the United States, operating alongside three high-volume Parata MAX 2 vial-filling machines. The page describes the machines as compact, high-speed dispensing robots designed for the automated storage and picking of medications. The pharmacy also includes clean rooms built with solid surfaces and precise airflow to maintain a sterile environment for compounding medications. A 775-foot conveyor system runs through the filling space, carrying medication through each step of the verification and packing process; once packed and verified, medications travel on an overhead conveyor system with a spiral that sends them to the shipping space.

Fairview Pharmacy Services fills as many as 50,000 prescriptions per month and serves patients at more than 30 community locations, according to the page, which describes the operation as one of the largest health-system-based home infusion pharmacies in the country, serving 2,900 patients in 13 states. Citing an article in the American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, the page states that spending on pharmaceuticals grew 10.2% in the United States from 2023 to 2024 and that Americans are spending $805.9 billion on prescription medications, with experts estimating that specialty medications will account for 30% of healthcare dollar spending in the next few years.

“We have expanded our capabilities to service more patients and fill the gaps created by pharmacy deserts which can create inequities in care,” said Tim Affeldt, PharmD, vice president of specialty and infusion operations with Fairview Pharmacy Solutions. He added that the facility allows the organization to be more efficient and stretch scarce resources to take care of more patients.

BD’s Connected Pharmacy Strategy

BD describes itself as one of the largest providers of pharmacy automation and robotics solutions in healthcare and said it is advancing a vision for a more connected, intelligent end-to-end pharmacy. According to the company, the Vmax complements its broader portfolio of pharmacy automation technologies and the BD Incada Connected Care Platform, and together these solutions are intended to help health systems automate and orchestrate pharmacy services from central pharmacy through dispensing and fulfillment, reducing manual touchpoints and moving toward more autonomous medication management.