Three ways drones are supporting pharma supply chains

Drones are swiftly rising as an important tool for logistics companies, as these autonomous vehicles are increasingly seen as a legitimate solution to deliver vital medicines to regions that conventional methods of transport cannot reach.

Additionally, earlier this year the creation of new “vertiports” was announced in three major strategic locations: London, Singapore and Los Angeles, with the aim of supplying medications to Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and the Americas respectively.

In this article, Pharma Logistics explores three main areas where drones are transforming pharmaceutical supply chains.

Supply in hard-to-reach areas

Drones can cover gaps in the supply chain in areas that lack the infrastructure for conventional transport logistics. In sub-Saharan Africa for example, drone companies are setting up large-scale delivery networks to build entirely new transport frameworks, enabling the on-demand delivery of medicines, vaccines and lab supplies. Given that drones are unmanned they do not require drivers; nor do they require the construction of additional roads.

To support this, drone companies are partnering with local businesses and government departments so that the vehicles themselves can be manufactured locally. Continental Drones, for example, has partnered with German drone manufacturer Wingcopter in all 49 sub-Saharan countries. Over the next five years, the partners will deploy 12,000 Wingcopter 198s throughout Africa, making this the largest commercial deployment in the global delivery drone industry to date.

Sustainable supply chains

Battery-operated, drones are more environmentally friendly than many other vehicles, with the caveat that heavier loads will require larger, more energy-intensive drones that need more frequent charging.

However, for local deliveries with short lead times drones are both more efficient and produce less emissions than road transport. They are also beneficial in areas that have heavy road traffic.

Partnerships such as the deal between Wingcopter and Continental also have the potential to boost local economies and create new job opportunities to build and operate the vehicles, with a minimal carbon footprint.

On demand, fast delivery

As supply issues have been on the rise, so has the demand for the fast delivery of medicines. In areas that are time-consuming to reach, such as overpopulated cities with dense traffic, drones provide a fast solution.

The southern Indian state of Telangana has been impacted by extreme weather events in the last two years, including intense heat waves and flooding. These incidents disrupted existing supply chains and made it difficult to deliver Covid-19 vaccines when they were most needed to control the peak of the pandemic.

To tackle this, Indian drone company Skye Air delivered vaccines in temperature-controlled boxes within a 12 km range, taking an average of 18 minutes to arrive at their destination.

Another example is Austria, where the Red Cross is working with aerospace company Thales to deliver life-saving blood samples to hospitals on demand within minutes.

Quick links

• What is drone delivery and how is it changing the pharmaceutical supply chain?
• Pfizer to supply all its medicines to low-income countries for no profit
• The top 25 global logistics providers

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