The invention concerns the automated robotic system for dispensing drugs from vials into liquid containers such as IV bags or syringes. A robot selects a vial and a suitable container and transports them to a processing station together with a needle which may be double-ended. At the processing station the contents of the vial are transferred into the container. Some of the contents of the container may be transferred into the vial in order to reconstitute and/or wash out the vial contents and agitation may be provided for the vial. Various additional devices may be provided such as a decapping device for the vials, an alcohol swabbing station for swabbing the top of a vial and/or the input port of a IV bag or syringe. Moreover, a label printer may be provided so that the robot may deliver a label with the finally processed IV bag and empty vial to a verification station. When IV bags are used, the invention may feature a conveyor of trays of the bags to a pick-up station of the robot. The trays add rigidity to the bags so that they can be handled by the robot. To present needles to the robot, needle trays may be used in which needles lie in parallel one to the other in pick-up position. The robot may have gripping fingers having one gripping surface for gripping a vial and another gripping surface for gripping a needle or solution container. The containers may be provided with shaped portions for gripping by either of the robot gripping surfaces. Vial dispensers may be a chute or a series of chutes which present vials to specific pick-up locations from which the robot can select a vial in accordance with prescription data.