Zipline https://flyzipline.com has announced a partnership with Intermountain Healthcare https://intermountainhealthcare.org to deliver prescriptions and medical supplies to patients in the Salt Lake City metro area.
The operation is expected to grow over a multi-year period to ultimately complete hundreds of deliveries each day and be capable of delivering to about 90 percent of patient homes in the region.
The two companies will initially focus on delivering specialty pharmaceuticals and homecare products to patient homes within a 50 mile radius of the Salt lake area distribution center. Over time, Intermountain plans to expand the delivery of a range of medications and products, including prescriptions, specialty pharmaceuticals plus over-the-counter items.
Zipline’s automated on-demand delivery service features a fleet of small, fixed wing autonomous aircraft. The aircraft are able to travel long distances in most weather conditions and safely, gently, and quietly parachute packages to an area about the size of several parking spaces. Zipline’s aircraft are electric and will help reduce vehicle traffic and carbon emissions from medical deliveries in Utah.
Zipline and Intermountain plan to begin deliveries by midyear 2022. Currently Zipline operates at multinational scale in Ghana and Rwanda, with plans to soon launch operations in Japan and Nigeria. After five years of operations, Zipline recently announced they had completed more than 200,000 commercial deliveries.