Amazon, on its way to expanding into new product categories and delivery routes, is launching a new service that combines those two strategies into one: Amazon Pharmacy, the company's online store for prescription drugs, will begin delivering products to customers using its Prime Air drones. Amazon said packages will be delivered by drone within 60 minutes of your order through Amazon Pharmacy.
The service covers around 500 medications, including flu, asthma and pneumonia; and (for now) it's free to use, Amazon said.
The first area to get drugs using drones will be College Station, Texas, the company said. He declined to say where else it might expand or when. College Station, along with Lockeford, California, are the only two markets where Prime Air drones (covering a limited set of non-pharmacy products) have been deployed so far.
The markets where Amazon has launched same-day delivery for pharmacies are Austin, Indianapolis, Miami, Phoenix and Seattle, so they could also be some of the first markets for drone deliveries (pending regulatory approval).
While Amazon has been slowly adding new services to the pharmacy to make it more competitive in the market, such as RxPass, launched earlier this year, allows customers to access certain medications they take regularly for a flat fee of five Dollars. Prime Air services have been slow to take off, so to speak.
Amazon's drone delivery program has been underway since 2013, and in 2016 it made its first delivery in England. In the US, it scored a victory in 2020, when it had approval from the Federal Aviation Authority to test services. But a series of regulatory and other technical issues have prevented it from making significant implementations, with multiple observers pointing it out how it has been surpassed by offerings from companies like Walmart.
There is obvious logic in adding drone delivery to Amazon's pharmacy service. If a person is unwell and unable to pick up prescriptions in person, but also needs them urgently and may not have anyone else to help them, the drone becomes a quick and easy route for that customer.
Amazon's focus on the at-home opportunity is not limited to just medication delivery. Amazon Clinic offers virtual evaluations and treatment recommendations covering approximately 35 conditions; and the company's One Medical service (which it acquired for $3.900 billion in July 2022) offers virtual and in-person primary care services.
“We are taught from the earliest days of medical school that there is a golden window that matters in clinical medicine,” said Dr. Vin Gupta, chief medical officer at Amazon Pharmacy. “That is the time between the time a patient feels unwell and the time he can receive treatment. We're working hard at Amazon to dramatically reduce the golden window between diagnosis and treatment, and drone delivery marks an important step forward. “Whether it is an infectious or respiratory disease, early intervention can be instrumental in improving patient outcomes.”
There is also a business logic: delivery trucks have very high costs associated with them, from labor to the operation (and insurance) of the vehicles themselves.
The company tells me the College Station operation builds on a pharmacy it opened in the city to lay the groundwork for drone delivery service. The medications are monitored by a pharmacist on site and then loaded onto the drone located immediately outside the pharmacy. This also points to an interesting opportunity in the future: Amazon works with other pharmacies that offer them similar drone delivery services.
