Dive Brief:

• Drones carrying time-critical and temperature-sensitive medicines flew the skies of Puerto Rico last week, as five cold chain stakeholders teamed up to test the technology's viability for disaster relief.
• Merck, AT&T, Softbox, Volans-i and Direct Relief each provided supplies, equipment or technology to facilitate the long-distance journeys of medical supplies, while reporting a documented chain of custody, clear flight plans and consistent temperature integrity for each delivery, according to a press release. 
• The drones flew to remote areas with challenging terrain in locations impacted during Hurricane Maria beyond the line of sight. The technology could help ease the need for both labor and helicopters to reach remote regions during disasters and therefore help save lives through increased access to healthcare.

Dive Insight:

Puerto Rico joins a growing list of regions in which drones have been tested for medical supply delivery to locations beyond the line of sight, or otherwise hard to reach.

"In a humanitarian situation, time is of the essence in the race to deliver vital drugs to save lives. And a chilled environment is essential to keep the medicine viable," Linda Pulli, executive director of supply chain management at Merck, said in an e-mail.

The tests, she said, are the first step to developing a proof-of-concept for drone delivery of medical supplies in emergency relief situations. The initial goal is to prove such deliveries are possible, with an end-goal of facilitating access-to-medicine for all patients during a natural disaster.

"The challenge for pharmaceutical companies such as Merck is to keep the medicines safe, stable and avoid tampering on the way. It's even harder to deliver to patients in places with restricted access or in difficult-to-reach terrains," she said.

Drones, due to their autonomous nature, light weight and ease in aerial transit, have long been seen as a promising solution to last-mile labor and transportation challenges. UPS and Zipline have been testing vaccine deliveries in remote areas of Rwanda since at least 2016, with other companies including Airbus signing on more recently to study or commercialize the technology. 

The test in Puerto Rico appears to be the latest step in the process of commercializing the unmanned aerial vehicles.

In contrast to the Airbus and UPS projects, these tests brought together partners across the supply chain, from service coordinators like Direct Relief to a packaging company (Softbox) and an internet of things provider (AT&T). Previous partnerships typically occurred between just a drone, a service and a supplies provider.

The fact that it delivered directly to a clinic shows the technology is also viable for other, perhaps more urban, last-mile scenarios. In Iceland, drones have already been used to deliver to retailers, and tests are ongoing across the United States, under the supervision of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Beyond this test, Merck said it was also considering other use cases for drones in its supply chain.

"In addition to disaster relief scenarios, we plan to use the drones for ‘last mile delivery’ in remote areas that are not easily accessible via normal transportation modes (car, truck, plane) as well as potential delivery at the onset of a disease outbreak (Ebola)," said Pulli.