Zipline to muscle up nascent UK medical drone delivery network

Global instant logistics leader Zipline will initiate its medical drone delivery activity in the UK by assuming a central role in an aerial network planning to serve over 30 hospitals and other healthcare facilities operated by northwest England’s regional unit of the National Health System (NHS).

Zipline announced Sunday it will be partnering with UK drone delivery startup Apian Aero in its work to launch services for the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. Operation, the company said, is slated to begin in the autumn of 2024, ultimately providing fast air transport of lab specimens, medicines, and urgently needed equipment for the care of hundreds of thousands of patients.

Given Zipline’s vast experience in medical instant logistics in Africa and the US – and increasing commercial services in the South San Francisco startup’s domestic market – joining Apian’s drone delivery project for the Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust won’t involve anything new. It could prove a little bit sensitive, however, given the pushback the initiative recently received.

As DroneDJ has reported previously, the project was launched in February, but encountered considerable turbulence in September from local aircraft businesses and pilots denouncing a virtual “air-grab” of the large corridor its UAVs were planning to use. In response to that loud protest, Apian and its Northumbria NHS client regrouped and had been discussing revisions of the plan with opponents. 

It would now appear sufficient grounds for compromise have been found to bring Zipline onboard. That will permit the effort to benefit from the company’s considerable experience and resources, and super-charge preparations for a 2024 start. Unknown, however, is the future role – if any – of previous partner Skyports Drone Services.

Sir James Mackey, CEO of Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust said the critical mass and operational muscle Zipline brings to the project will create a faster, sustainable medical drone transport option to cars and vans currently used. Those slower, polluting vehicles are often caught in traffic or otherwise delayed during the multiple stops they must make on routes, resulting in late deliveries that prevent doctors from treating patients as planned. 

“This expansion with Zipline and Apian is an exciting next step as we strive to improve services for the hundreds of thousands of patients we serve,” said Mackey. “We believe this innovative technology could be used to improve healthcare outcomes, save money, and eliminate supply chain complexities, and we’re keen to get started.”

Under its role, Zipline will centralize the inventory of frequently ordered items like prescription medicines, wound care products, and joint replacement implants, and use drones to deliver those to the over 30 hospitals and clinics under Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust’s purview. In the beginning of operations, the company will use its P1 platform of fixed-wing UAVs dropping payloads at destinations using parachutes. 

The company has long deployed those assets to rack up more than 60 million commercial miles to date, and deliver millions of medical products worldwide – including over 13 million vaccine doses. Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo Cliffton said use of its drones will allow Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust to join the startup’s efforts to elevate delivery activity from clogged and polluted roads to the option of free flying, battery-powered UAVs.

“Today 3,000-pound gas vehicles driven by humans are used to deliver three-pound packages billions of times per year,” Rinaudo Cliffton said. “It’s expensive, slow, and bad for the environment. This decision means that the NHS can start to transition delivery to solutions that are ten times as fast, less expensive, and zero emission. This service will be delivered at a fraction of the cost of the existing solution, and will help drive financial savings to the NHS in the longer term.”