Drones in healthcare: Delivering vaccines to life-saving drugs sustainably

State governments, as well as e-commerce players, are taking initiatives to launch healthcare services through drones into remote areas

The idea of a drone has usually been associated with defence or e-commerce. But, the technology has made remarkable impact on the healthcare segment. Globally, there are several examples of drones saving lives by delivering emergency medicines or saving people from a life-threatening conditions.

In Sweden, last year, a 71-year-old man suffered cardiac arrest while shovelling snow in his driveway and was saved as a drone delivered a defibrillator to the house.

In India, too, the use of drones for healthcare has been gaining ground. State governments have been taking initiatives to launch healthcare services through drones in remote areas. Moreover, e-commerce players are experimenting with the technology in healthcare.

Flipkart's pharma division, Flipkart Healthcare, is working with Skye Air Mobility for drone delivery of medicines. The collaboration kicked off on Independence Day, with the launch of beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) flights from Flipkart Health's warehouse in West Bengal's Baruipur town, to multiple Health Buddy over the counter (OTC) locations within Kolkata and suburbs.

The initiative is initially expected to make 20 flights daily, each carrying a payload of up to 5 kg of medicines, delivered from the warehouse to 10 OTC locations in the region. The flights can cover a maximum aerial distance of 16 kilometer (24 km by road). 

"Drones are faster, sustainable, more accessible, cost-effective to operate and capable of doing multiple deliveries in a day. With the ongoing BVLOS trials, we anticipate gathering more data on the route, flight and cost-economic viability to develop models for commercial flights in the next few months," said Ankit Kumar, CEO, Skye Air Mobility.

The company claims to have conducted over 1,500 deliveries in the healthcare, e-commerce, quick commerce and agri-commodity segments. Skye Air is ramping up its fleet size to about 120 drones in the next 12-15 months, from its current capacity of four or five drones, as it chases growth opportunities in the healthcare segment, Kumar told PTI.

Besides Skye Air Mobility, Bengaluru-based Redwing Labs has been trying to ensure quick and affordable delivery of life-saving medical supplies and diagnostics services.

Redwing Labs has been providing its hybrid Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) drones to run end-to-end operations for an experimental trial for tribal and rural communities in Seppa, a town in the East Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh.

The pilot project has been made possible with the financial and technical support from SAMRIDH Healthcare Blended Financing Facility--an initiative supported by United States Agency for International Development (USAID), implemented by IPE Global. The healthcare drone pilots in Arunachal Pradesh are also an outcome of the state partnership with the World Economic Forum's 'Medicines From the Sky' initiative.

By enabling care at the local level, the drone network aims to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure, increase immunisation rates and improve welfare gains. An impact evaluation study would accompany this experimental network to understand the cost-benefit and health impact of drones in the public health system.

"East Kameng District has a very hilly terrain, which makes it difficult to access interior areas, particularly during monsoon. I am sure drone-based drug delivery will be a game changer in strengthening access to healthcare in such remote areas. Hoping that this pilot would give us the answers and clarity for the future," Pravimal Abhishek, Deputy Commissioner, Seppa, East Kameng,

Though it is a pilot project, Anshul Sharma, CEO and co-founder of Redwing Labs, believes that this trial will give quantifiable data points on cost and supply chain behaviour for drones in public healthcare to kick-start mass adoption. By delivering medical supplies up to eight times faster than road-based logistics, the drone network would serve the population of East Kameng by offering better quality care in the interior blocks.

India started trials and pilots of drone-based deliveries in healthcare in 2021. Multiple states, including Telangana, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Odisha and Uttarakhand, carried out pilots and experimental flights. Drones carry multiple health products, including vaccines, essential drugs and diagnostic samples.

In 2021, Telangana became the first Indian state to deliver medicines using drones; it continues to expand these services to remote areas.

The Covid pandemic has made governments worldwide witness the technology's potential. 

Since the Drone Rules, 2021 were introduced, drone usage has gained further traction. According to a Rajya Sabha reply by Minister of State Civil Aviation, General VK Singh (Retd), the government is using drones for vaccine delivery, inspection of oil pipelines and power transmission lines, agricultural spraying, among other things.

"Drones offer tremendous benefits to almost all sectors of the economy. These include agriculture, vaccine delivery, surveillance, search and rescue, transportation, mapping, defence and law enforcement, to name a few," the minister said.

While India has just started using drones for medicine and healthcare services delivery, many countries are considering using drones as passenger ambulances to transport patients and medical staff from one place to another.