Boots completes first drone delivery for prescription-only medicines
Boots has announced that it has become first community pharmacy in the UK to transport prescription-only medicines by drone.
The health and beauty retailer completed a test flight from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight earlier this month.
Departing from the British Army’s Baker Barracks on Thorney Island, the drone flew to St. Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight. The medicines were then collected by Boots and transported to its pharmacies across the island, where they will be dispensed to patients with prescriptions..
Boots worked with medical drone start up Apian to facilitate the test flight and is now assessing the future potential for drones in medicines delivery.
Rich Corbridge, chief information officer at Boots, said: “Drones have a huge potential in the delivery of medicines and it is incredibly exciting to be the first community pharmacy in the UK to transport them in this way.
“In this trial, we will be looking at how much time we can save, as well as how we can incorporate drones into our medicines supply chain to create economic efficiencies too. We want to prepare now for the wider use of this technology in the future.”
