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Amazon, on its way to expanding new product categories and delivery routes, is today launching a new service that combines those two strategies into one: Amazon Pharmacy — the company’s online storefront for prescription medication — delivered by drone. Is going to start delivery of products to operated customers. By Prime Air, Amazon’s drone delivery service. Amazon said packages will be dropped off by drone within 60 minutes of being ordered through Amazon Pharmacy.
The service covers approximately 500 medicines, including medicines for flu, asthma and pneumonia; And (for now) it’s free to use, Amazon said.
The first area to receive medications from the drone will be College Station, Texas, the company said. It declined to say where or when it might expand. College Station, along with Lockford, California, are the only two markets where Prime Air drones have launched so far (covering a limited set of non-pharmacy products).
The markets where Amazon has launched same-day delivery for pharmacies are Austin, Indianapolis, Miami, Phoenix, and Seattle – so these may be some of the first markets for drone delivery, (pending regulatory approval).
While Amazon is slowly adding new services to pharmacy to make it more market-competitive (for example RxPass, launched earlier this year, gives customers access to certain medications for a flat fee of $5 which they take regularly). It can be said that Prime Air services have been slow to take off.
Amazon’s drone delivery program has been in the works since 2013, and in 2016 it made its first delivery in England. In the US, it won in 2020, when it got approval for testing services from the Federal Aviation Authority. But a series of regulatory and other technical issues have prevented it from making any significant rollouts, with many observers pointing out how it has been left behind by offerings from companies like Walmart.
There’s a clear rationale for adding drone delivery to Amazon’s pharmacy service. If a person is unwell and unable to pick up a prescription in person, but needs it urgently and has no one else to help him, drones become a quick and easy route to that customer.
Amazon’s focus on the at-home opportunity isn’t limited to just medicine delivery. Amazon Clinic offers virtual evaluations and treatment recommendations covering approximately 35 conditions; And the company’s One Medical Services (which it acquired in July 2022 for $3.9 billion) provides virtual and in-person primary care services.
“We have been taught from the first days of medical school that a golden window in clinical medicine matters,” Dr. Vin Gupta, chief medical officer of Amazon Pharmacy, said in a statement. “This is the time between when a patient feels unwell and when he is able to receive treatment. We are working hard in the Amazon to dramatically narrow the golden window from diagnosis to treatment, and drone delivery is an important step forward. Whether it is an infectious disease or a respiratory illness, early intervention can be critical to improving patient outcomes.
There is also a business logic: there are very high costs associated with delivery trucks, from labor to operating (and insuring) the vehicles.
The company told me the operation in College Station is based on a pharmacy it opened in the city to lay the foundation for a drone delivery service. TeaMedications are handled by an onsite pharmacist and then loaded onto a drone located just outside the pharmacy. It also points to an interesting opportunity in the future: Amazon is working with other pharmacies to provide them with similar drone delivery services.
