Amazon will soon make prescribed medications “fall from the sky” at your door. The e-commerce giant becomes the latest company to test drone deliveries of medications.
The company recently announced that customers in College Station, Texas, can now receive doctor-prescribed medications by drone within an hour of placing their order.
The drone, programmed to fly from a delivery center with a pharmacy, will travel to the customer’s address, descend to a height of about four meters – or 13 feet – and drop a cushioned package.
Amazon claims that customers will be able to choose from over 500 medications, a list that includes common treatments for illnesses such as the flu or pneumonia, but not controlled substances.
The company’s Prime Air division began testing deliveries of common household items by drone last December in College Station and Lockeford, California. Amazon spokesperson Jessica Bardoulas said the company has made thousands of deliveries since launching the service and is expanding it to include medications due in part to customer requests.
Amazon Pharmacy’s medical director, Dr. Vin Gupta, says that the U.S. healthcare system often struggles to diagnose and treat patients quickly for acute illnesses, something that became apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Narrowing the window between diagnosis and treatment makes many treatments more effective, he said.
Amazon is not the first company to explore drone deliveries of medications. The CVS Health pharmacy chain worked with UPS to test this type of delivery in 2019 in North Carolina, but the program ended, according to a CVS spokesperson.
Companies seeking to use drones for commercial purposes have faced hurdles from regulators who want to ensure everything is operating safely. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos predicted a decade ago that drones would be making deliveries by 2018. But five years after that, the e-commerce giant is only using the technology in a small number of markets.
Amazon said its drones will fly up to 120 meters high, or nearly 400 feet, before slowly descending when they reach the customer’s home. The drone will check to ensure the delivery zone is free of pets, children, or any other obstructions before dropping the package.
Source: AP