POWERS LAKE, Wis. — Pharmacy automation provider TCGRx has released the ATP 2, a next-generation automated tablet packaging system.

TCGRx said the ATP 2, announced Thursday at the Cardinal Retail Business Conference (RBC) in Las Vegas, enables pharmacies to run leaner than ever before by reducing labor and operating costs. The system provides continuous operation while focusing on redundancy and uptime for optimal efficiency, the company noted.

With strip packaging and adherence packaging becoming more common, products and services must evolve to accommodate the increase in volume and demands for new features, according to Duane Chudy, chief executive officer of TCGRx.

“The ATP 2 leverages a solid engineering foundation while pioneering the next set of features that pharmacies need to capture and improve compliance among at-risk patients while still improving their bottom line,” Chudy explained. “The ATP 2 delivers on a customer-friendly adherence package referred to as AdherePac. The unique package can be printed with color indicators to signify the proper pass times, images of pills and even reminder bags for non-oral solids such as inhalers.”

Matt Noffsinger, senior vice president of business development and sales at TCGRx, noted that the ATP 2’s packaging automation design lends itself to reliability.

“It is unique to be able to release a product that has such a strong foundation yet has such revolutionary features. Our customers can now operate with limitless canister automation, they can run half-tablets through the machine, and they can run continuously without stops for refilling trays,” Noffsinger stated. “This really does deliver the solution needed to make strip packaging and adherence packaging practical for any pharmacy.”

TCGRx said the ATP 2 comes in a variety of sizes and is expandable for future growth or business needs. The product offers a range of pouch sizes that fit acute care settings as well as long-term care and retail pharmacy venues. The system integrates with the comprehensive suite of pharmacy solutions offered by TCGRx, including a fully automated imaging and verification system, the InspectRx.

The InspectRx ensures the quality of the packaging process and reduces the labor associated with checking. Meanwhile, the Collector automates the collation process by automatically separating each patient strip and rolling it to prepare it for delivery. TCGRx added that it has built custom solutions to scale this process to handle more than 20,000 scripts per day.