MedPal AI (AIM:MPAL) has acquired Solid State Technologies, trading as eMARx, a UK provider of electronic medication administration record (eMAR) software used by care homes and pharmacies to track and verify resident medication in real time.
The AIM-listed digital health and pharmacy group said the deal completes its "Health OS", which already spans NHS pharmacy dispensing, a B2B care home supply business anchored by Care UK, a private clinic and its Juno AI health assistant.
eMARx brings established, recurring revenue: unaudited sales of £0.74 million for the year to 31 March, up 19% year on year and roughly trebled over three years, with profit after tax of £0.11 million and gross margins of approximately 82%.
Its customer base includes national care groups such as Care UK, pharmacy groups and independent care homes, giving MedPal an installed base to expand beyond its existing Care UK relationship.
MedPal plans to offer eMARx at a discount or free where care homes use its pharmacy services exclusively, aiming to lift pharmacy revenue and improve customer acquisition and retention.
The group's robotic dispensing hub at Sarus Court, Runcorn, built on BD Rowa technology with spare capacity, underpins the planned national roll-out.
"eMARx gives the Group a software-led route into thousands of additional care homes beyond its existing relationships," chief executive Jason Drummond said, adding the deal turns the Care UK relationship into "a national opportunity across roughly 16,500 UK care homes."
The NHS spent £21.6 billion on medicines in England in the 2024/25 financial year, with care home residents accounting for roughly 250,000 emergency hospital admissions annually, 35% to 40% of which are considered avoidable.
News Intelligence what this means for the company
MedPal AI has completed its acquisition of eMARx, a care-home eMAR software provider with £0.74m in annual revenue, 82% gross margins, and an installed base spanning national care groups including Care UK. The deal plugs a software layer into MedPal's pharmacy dispensing and care-home supply business, enabling it to offer eMARx free or discounted to homes using its pharmacy services exclusively—a lever to scale beyond its existing Care UK relationship into the roughly 16,500 UK care homes the CEO cited. This follows the group's £5m raise in July 2026 to fund care-home software and clinic expansion.
- eMARx's customer base—Care UK, pharmacy groups, and independent homes—now sits within MedPal's ecosystem, creating cross-sell opportunities for pharmacy services and reducing churn risk if the software-bundling strategy succeeds.
- The deal anchors MedPal's stated 'Health OS' strategy (NHS pharmacy dispensing, B2B care-home supply, private clinic, Juno AI) with recurring software revenue (£0.74m baseline, growing 19% year-on-year), reducing reliance on transactional pharmacy margins alone.
eMARx's high gross margins (82%) and recurring revenue model materially alter MedPal's revenue mix away from lower-margin transactional pharmacy supply. However, the deal's value to shareholders depends entirely on execution: whether bundling eMARx free with pharmacy services actually drives pharmacy volume and retention across the 16,500-home addressable market, or merely cannibalizes software margins. The robotic dispensing hub at Runcorn provides spare capacity to absorb volume, but no financial terms for the eMARx acquisition are disclosed, leaving the capital efficiency of the deal opaque.
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