Markets in Everything: Drug Vending Machines

Minneapolis -- "The Eden Prairie (MN) company InstyMeds is bringing vending machine convenience to the world of medicine. The number of the machines has doubled in the past three years, with 200 installed in 33 states and the District of Columbia, mostly in emergency rooms and urgent care centers (see photo above).

The machines dispense up to 100 of the most commonly prescribed drugs, including pain relievers, antibiotics, asthma inhalers, treatments for bee stings and remedies for the cold and flu.

The company was founded in 1999 by Ken Rosenblum, a former emergency room doctor who needed a prescription for his 5-year-old son's ear infection at 10 p.m. and couldn't find an open pharmacy."