Zipline, arguably the world’s largest drone delivery service for medical supplies has announced that they are building a delivery solution to distribute all leading COVID-19 vaccines in each of the countries where they operate.
The firm's new cold chain distribution capability, which is being developed with a leading manufacturer of COVID-19 vaccines, will leverage Zipline’s drone delivery network to safely deliver frozen and ultra-low COVID-19 vaccines and medical products.
Zipline Chief Executive Keller Rinaudo said that the intervention is tailored to ensure that one’s location doesn’t determine whether or not they get a COVID-19 vaccine.
"We can help health systems bypass infrastructure and supply chain challenges through instant delivery,” he said.
Locally, The New Times has established that Zipline has been conducting an infrastructure upgrade as well as capacity building among its staff members, made up of about 80 young Rwandans in readiness for the development.
Israel Bimpe, Zipline’s Director for Africa said that they have been undertaking an infrastructure upgrade at their two distribution centres, that includes intra-low freezers and the end to end cold chain system that is under development.
The firm’s suitability for involvement in vaccine distribution in far-flung areas is among other things due to experience in the delivery of cold chain products such as blood supplies and other medical supplies which have seen them set up protocols with health care centres and hospitals.
Bimpe said that they are awaiting the signal from government agencies for kick-off to support the delivery process.
The government has been involved in multiple aspects of preparedness such as training of health providers, setting a framework of service delivery, acquisition of infrastructure such as freezers among others.
The firm currently covers about 260 health centres across the country with an aim to reach 700. He said that their experience working in partnership with agencies such as the Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority enables flexibility to commence flights to new ‘routes’ on demand.
"We have great partners in the Rwanda Civil Aviation Authority in approving routes very fast, we have no doubt about that. We have flexibility. Zipline allows you to carry small quantities that are needed on-demand, it helps where supplies are scarce without having to stockpile. Some facilities will have capacity to stockpile and others won’t have. Zipline can supply what they need, when they need and in quantities they need. We have used the same principle for blood products that are hard to store,” he explained.
The distribution centres have capacity to operate 24 hours a day and currently make about 150 deliveries every 12 hours.
This comes at a time when across the world, stakeholders are seeking solutions to last-mile challenges which lead to inability to deliver needed vaccines from a city to rural or remote locations due to lack of adequate transportation, communication, or supply chain infrastructure.
Zipline is seeking to incorporate its expertise and experience in on-demand, national-scale deliveries of cold-chain dependent supplies in the standard and frozen ranges every day having transported similar supplies before.
"For example, COVID-19 vaccines may require dry ice, or highly specialized freezers typically seen in larger, well-equipped medical labs and research centers. Transporting, storing, and distributing ultra-low cold-chain COVID-19 vaccines in challenging-to-reach places with no interruptions in the end-to-end supply chain process will require innovative delivery solutions,” the firm said in a statement.