The American chain of pharmacies CVS and the transporter UPS have jointly developed a system for delivering prescription drugs by drone. In the midst of a coronavirus pandemic, this service will allow patients who cannot leave their homes to receive their treatments without any contact with a delivery person. The device will be in place in early May, says The Verge .
The beneficiaries will be residents of The Villages, a community of tens of thousands of retirees located near Orlando, Florida. A drone will perform a flight of approximately 800 meters to deposit the medicines ordered at the entrance of the residence. Initially, it is a UPS delivery vehicle that will bring the package to the customer's home.
Other stores would join the system
At the start, all the drugs transported will come from the same CVS store. Two other stores of the chain should however take part in the plan thereafter. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the American civil aviation authority, has given the green light for the delivery program which will use the M2 drones produced by the California startup Matternet.
Through its subsidiary specialized in Flight Forward drones, UPS has already made thousands of deliveries of medicines in October to retirement homes in North Carolina. For Scott Price, Director of Strategy and Transformation at UPS, the service offered in Florida is "another way to support our healthcare customers and patients with innovative solutions."
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