Role of medical drones in global Covid vaccination campaign is increasing

Zipline, the California-based drone start-up that provides essential medical supplies to countries like Ghana and Rwanda, pursues a larger role in the global Covid-19 vaccination effort and addresses one of the logistical challenges the most delicate: storage in the cold chain.

Earlier this week, the Nigerian state of Kaduna signed an agreement with Zipline allowing the drone delivery of Covid-19 vaccines. Kaduna’s partnership with Zipline, which has delivered more than one million doses of other vaccines to Africa over the past year, will also enable the on-demand delivery of blood products, drugs and other vaccines.

The deal with Kaduna did not include cold chain storage, but separately, Zipline is working on a Covid-19 vaccine distribution plan with end-to-end cold chain capabilities. The ultra-cold temperatures required to store the Covid-19 vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German company BioNTech not only caused a buying spree for freezers and dry ice, but also created logistical challenges for cash-strapped medical facilities that might not be able to afford such equipment.

“Cold chain distribution in the pharmaceutical industry is complicated even in normal times,” said David Gitlin, President and CEO of Carrier Global Corp. on CNBC in November. “You have a clock that runs, you have an expiration date, you have multiple modes of transport, multiple transfers, from [original equipment manufacturer] all the way to administration. … The good news is that public and private industry are coming together to be part of the solution with more capacity and new digital capabilities. “

Zipline – which ranked # 7 on the 2020 CNBC Disruptor 50 list – plans to leverage its drone delivery network for freezing and ultra-low temperatures Covid-19 vaccines and medical products in the markets where it operates, from April. He declined to specify a vaccine partner.

Pfizer’s vaccine should be stored in ultra-cold freezers that keep it between negative 112 and negative 76 degrees Fahrenheit. Other Covid-19 vaccines, such as those developed by Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca, can be stored at less extreme temperatures. Johnson & Johnson have announced plans to ship their vaccine between 36 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit, which is in line with standard vaccine distribution.

In the United States and Africa, Zipline will add ultra-low refrigeration capacity to its distribution centers and “perform end-to-end thermal validation from the point of care to the patient,” according to a Zipline statement.

A spokeswoman for Pfizer said she supports Zipline’s efforts to expand access to vaccines and medicines to those in hard-to-reach geographic areas. “We share Zipline’s commitment to innovative solutions to ensure fairness in the distribution of vaccines and drugs,” she wrote in an email to CNBC, though she declined to specifically confirm. that an agreement had been signed with Zipline.

The United States records at least 141,400 new cases of Covid-19 and at least 3,090 virus-related deaths each day, based on a seven-day average calculated by CNBC, using data from Johns University Hopkins. Encouraging vaccine data continues to emerge around the world, even as virus variants threaten to derail progress. A study from the University of Oxford found that its vaccine, developed with AstraZeneca, is still effective after delaying the second dose, which could alleviate distribution issues and increase availability.

Last May, Zipline signed a medical delivery agreement to the United States in the wake of Covid-19. The FAA has granted Novant Health permission to distribute contactless personal protective equipment (PPE) and essential medical supplies to frontline medical teams in the Charlotte, North Carolina metropolitan area via drones operated by Zipline.

The company also announced a partnership with Walmart to launch a delivery service for certain health and wellness products in the United States.

“Over 100 million people in America – in both rural and urban areas – live in drugstore deserts and lack adequate access to the drugs they need to stay healthy,” said the co-founder and Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo at CNBC. “Building this 21st century infrastructure will not only create more high-tech jobs in rural America and create more green, emissions-free logistics options, but it could revolutionize the way millions of people receive their care.

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