PRC, ZIPLINE partner to bring nationalscale drone delivery of blood to PHL

ZIPLINE, the world’s first and only national scale drone delivery service, and the Philippine Red Cross, the country’s premier humanitarian organization, announced their plans to begin making on-demand and emergency blood deliveries by drone across the country. The announcement was made during a signing ceremony at Red Cross Headquarters between Chairman and CEO Senator Richard Gordon, Musician, Activist, and Zipline Board Member Bono, and Zipline CEO Keller Rinaudo.

Starting with blood from the Philippine Red Cross, and expanding to include over 150 critical and life-saving medical products, the revolutionary new service will use a network of autonomous drones to make on-demand emergency deliveries. The service, which is expected to launch in the summer of 2020, is capable of operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Zipline plans to establish three distribution centers and launch the first center in the Visayas region. Future distribution centers will potentially help the partnership expand service to eastern Visayas and Mindanao.

“Geography and Mother Nature can get in the way of our work in reaching the most vulnerable, making it difficult for them to get access to blood and vital medicines. We are excited to bring the newest technology in fulfilling our mission. And we’re honored to partner with Zipline to help make it possible,” Gordon said.

“Millions of people in the Philippines can’t access the vital medical products they need because of last-mile transportation challenges. Zipline’s instant drone delivery service was designed to help solve that problem," Zipline CEO Rinaudo said.

In addition to PRC, Zipline will be working to expand its partnerships in the Philippines to include both government and private health care facilities as well as the pharmaceutical industry to help expand universal health care access for millions of Filipinos.

The drones fly autonomously and can carry 1.8 kilos of cargo, flying up to 145 kilometers an hour, and have a round trip range of 160 kilometers in high winds and rain. Each Zipline distribution center can deliver to an area of more than 20,000 square miles serving populations of up to 12 million people. Deliveries are made from the sky, with the drone descending to a safe height above the ground and releasing a box of medicine by parachute to a designated spot at the health centers it serves.

Zipline’s autonomous drones have flown more than a million miles, made tens of thousands of on-demand medical deliveries, and helped to save thousands of lives in emergencies since launching in October 2016 to deliver blood to 21 hospitals in Rwanda.