How Are Drones Used in the Pharmaceutical Industry?

People rely on the pharmaceutical industry to save lives and improve patient care. It’s a vital industry that’s continually looking for ways to improve, including implementing drones.

Leaders and team members know drones can improve the pharmaceutical industry in many ways. Whether they’re flying across manufacturing plants or a neighborhood, drones are becoming necessary tools for daily operations.

How Can Drones Improve Healthcare?

The pharmaceutical industry is using drones for numerous reasons. They improve healthcare by serving the needs of people, doing things like:

• Producing medications for the 6.7 billion prescriptions getting refilled daily in the U.S.¹
• Shipping supplies to cover the 20.6% increase in demand since 2019²
• Caring for the 36 million patients³ staying in hospitals annually
• Delivering prescriptions to the six in 10 adults⁴ taking daily medication

The flying robot helpers streamline processes and save people time. The effects are widespread, both within manufacturing facilities and in the world at large.

How Drones Improve Operational Plants

Optimizing everyone’s time and energy sometimes requires new tools. Drones provide more accurate readings and make time management easier by providing these services within warehouses and plants.

1. They collect data

Medications don’t appear in tablet or liquid form. They must undergo manufacturing first, which requires massive machinery. Team members used to be solely responsible for inspecting and cleaning that machinery, but drones are easing their workload.

Drones sit within crash cages to prevent damage while flying into pressure vessels, storage tanks, and refrigeration containers. The initial investment into the equipment comes with crash cage protection to ensure the longevity of each drone.

They also fit into spaces too small or dangerous for people. Drones can improve healthcare by providing information from previously inaccessible places, which optimizes production quality. They may spot mold growth or malfunctioning equipment before they affect products or customers.

2. They refine cleaning protocols

Sanitizing and disinfecting are different processes that are both vital for the pharmaceutical industry. They ensure all medications are safe to ingest and supplies are sterile.

Drones can get a high-definition image of surfaces to inspect them more closely. Compared to what the human eye might see, a drone could point out a flaw in a product’s design. The simple alert would draw attention to flaws that make surfaces more bacteria-friendly.

“Scientific literature provides evidence that surface roughness is an important factor with microbial attachment,” Tim Sandal, PhD, CBiol, FIScT, and Head of QA GxP Compliance and Quality Risk Management at Bio Products Laboratory Limited told Health. “That increased surface roughness is associated with increased bacterial attachment.”⁵

Fine details like microroughness are much easier to spot with drones working in manufacturing plants. Software cataloging images or live-streaming video feeds could stop a product’s production before it leaves for a sterile operating room.

3. They provide additional training opportunities

People work in the pharmaceutical industry at all levels. Everyone wants to see where their careers can take them, which requires expanding their skill set. Drones make that possible for people interested in flying them.

Employees could train to earn a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) to fly commercial drones internationally.⁶ They could work for any pharmaceutical company instead of having a limited job field. Drones can improve healthcare for patients, medical professionals, and the team members working in plants.

5 Ways Drones Strengthen the Entire Industry

Drones also improve the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry outside manufacturing facilities. These are the top ways they’re changing lives for people needing medical help.

1. They deliver to remote areas

Remote communities face higher comorbidity rates⁷ because they have limited to no healthcare access. The landscape or nonexistent utilities prevent people from building clinics and hospitals. They may be challenging for people to reach, but drones can zip over any terrain.

Future advances in drone technology will likely focus on extending the range. Medical teams have to halve each drone’s estimated travel distance to account for the trip back.⁸ If they had more of a travel range, the drones could help more people.

2. They optimize green delivery

The trucks, cargo ships, and planes needed for pharmaceutical shipments account for 71% of the healthcare industry’s carbon emissions.⁹ In a world increasingly affected by climate change, industry leaders are seeking to reduce that number.

Green fuel could be an option one day, but drones are a sustainable alternative available right now. Drones only need battery packs to power their electric motors. If companies charge their drone fleets with green energy sources, the delivery system would become much more eco-friendly.

Sustainable drones also make it easier to serve rural communities. The drones wouldn’t need to stop for fuel refills at established gas stations. They’d only need a long-lasting battery to deliver medicine and supplies to underserved areas.

The data shows a rising trend in active prescription, which the industry should prepare to accommodate. If numbers continue as shown below, a more extensive number of human and robotic delivery options will become necessary.¹

3. They offer on-demand delivery and updates

Drones can improve healthcare by offering on-demand delivery. It’s a much-needed solution when the pharmaceutical industry still struggles with supply chain shortages. A lack of workers slows production, putting patients and healthcare professionals in a waiting line for their medications.

Replacing traditional shipment options with drones also increases the data feedback loop for pharmaceutical companies. Cold chain suppliers could check their drones at any point to ensure their storage temperatures and subcomponents were working properly.

The drones would also communicate their exact location, minimizing the risk of product loss or theft during shipment. It would save time and money for everyone involved. Drone delivery could be especially vital in situations where people need their medications right away.

Drones could deliver their medications directly to hospitals, clinics, and patients’ homes without delay. It’s a significant benefit when people are still waiting for the supply chain to problem-solve and eliminate its internal challenges.

4. They carry more than medications

People needing their prescription refills may rely on drones for faster delivery, but the machines can carry more than medications. They also deliver lifesaving supplies produced within the pharmaceutical industry.

When someone has a heart attack, it takes time to call for emergency assistance. Even if someone calls 911 immediately, they must wait for emergency services to arrive. It takes even longer to reach a hospital for further care after the medical professionals deliver assistance.

Those seconds could mean a patient lives or dies. Drones make medical services instantly available by carrying equipment like automated external defibrillators (AEDs). They fly to the exact spots where people experience heart attacks, even where ambulances can’t drive.

“Efforts to increase survival in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest need to be prioritized because of low survival rates,” Jacob Hollenberg, PhD, MD, and Director Center for Resuscitation Science at the Karolinska Institutet told Health. “Use of AEDs in the early-cardiac-arrest electrical phase can increase survival rates to up to 50–70%.”¹⁰

Recent research shows that the delivery of AED devices with drones is accurate 92% of the time.¹⁰ The companies making the devices could combine them with existing drone technology to better serve the medical community and patients.

Drones could assist with other emergency medical situations with the right advancements. “There are several fields within medicine in which drones could be lifesaving,” said Hollenburg. “For example, there are ongoing studies with drones in the field of drowning and delivery of blood and organs.”¹⁰

5. They act as extra security

Individuals with various motives target pharmaceutical industry shipments for numerous reasons. They may disrupt the transport of medication to steal and traffic the products with gouged prices.¹¹

Traditional vehicles may not have the security cameras needed to identify perpetrators. Drones can easily carry cameras in addition to their deliveries. When theft occurs, video footage makes tracking the perpetrators and potentially retrieving the stolen goods much easier.

Drones may also protect industry workers from individuals perpetuating violence based on their conspiracy theory beliefs. Limited data makes it challenging to identify if more conspiracy theories are spreading compared to previous decades.¹²

However, research shows a growing number of individuals believe conspiracies regarding vaccinations being used to harm people.¹² Someone with anger issues and a strong belief in threatening conspiracies is more likely to react with violence.¹³

Pharmaceutical industry workers could be more at threat if they help produce products at the center of conspiracy theories. Theorists may target manufacturing facilities as individuals or groups. Additional security could make them wary about ever acting on their panic.

Drones offer greater security protection on pharmaceutical company grounds than stationary cameras. They can monitor the area around the clock. Their cameras provide 360-degree visibility and cloud storage to save and access extensive footage history.

Additional heat sensors and night-vision capabilities watch company grounds at night. Drone alerts could signal emergency response teams more quickly if someone were to trespass and attempt violence.

Watch How Drones Improve Healthcare 

If a pharmaceutical company uses drones, the business and anyone relying on it could benefit. Faster deliveries, more sanitary manufacturing conditions, and improved security are just a few improvements for companies using drones.

It’s worth considering while strategizing how to tackle supply chain issues and consumer demand in an ever-changing industry. Drone technology will continue advancing and offer more benefits to the pharmaceutical industry with each upgrade.

References

1. Drug prescription volume U.S. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/238702/us-total-medical-prescriptions-issued/
2. 2022 Costs of caring | AHA. www.aha.org. Published April 2022. https://www.aha.org/guidesreports/2023-04-20-2022-costs-caring
3. Hospital and emergency services - healthy people 2030 | health.gov. health.gov. https://health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/hospital-and-emergency-services
4. Lopes L, Stokes M. Public opinion on prescription drugs and their prices. KFF. Published June 15, 2021. https://www.kff.org/health-costs/poll-finding/public-opinion-on-prescription-drugs-and-their-prices/
5. Sandle T. The importance of not being too attached: Pharmaceutical equipment characteristics and bacterial attachment. Research Gate. Published September 27, 2021. Accessed October 13, 2023. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tim-Sandle/publication/354908852_The_Importance_of_Not_Being_Too_Attached_Pharmaceutical_Equipment_Characteristics_and_Bacterial_Attachment/links/62e667cb4246456b55fc973c/The-Importance-of-Not-Being-Too-Attached-Pharmaceutical-Equipment-Characteristics-and-Bacterial-Attachment.pdf
6. What to know if you are considering drone inspection. Acuren. Published March 1, 2019. Accessed October 13, 2023. https://www.acuren.com/news/what-our-customers-should-know-are-you-considering-inspection-via-drones/
7. Carlson EB, Gouge C. Rural health and contextualizing data. J Bus Tech Commun. 2020;35(1):41-49. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651920958502
8. Glick TB, Figliozzi MA, Unnikrishnan A. Case study of drone delivery reliability for time-sensitive medical supplies with stochastic demand and meteorological conditions. J Transp Res Bd. Published online August 27, 2021:036119812110366. doi:https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981211036685
9. Dehipawala S, Goldman E, Hwang E, Shah P, Shroff A, O'hara M. The pharmaceutical industry’s carbon footprint and current mitigation strategies: A literature review OP21 ISPOR Annual 2023. https://www.ispor.org/docs/default-source/intl2023/ispor23dehipawalaposter-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=f2e5a6eb_0
10. Thies KC, Jansen G, Wähnert D. AED drones on the rise? : Use of drones to improve public access defibrillation. Die Anaesthesiologie. 2022;71(11):865-871. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s00101-022-01204-w
11. Amado P de A. Trafficking in medical Products in the Sahel. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Published 2023. Accessed October 13, 2023. https://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/tocta_sahel/TOCTA_Sahel_medical_2023.pdf
12. Uscinski J, Enders A, Klofstad C, et al. Have beliefs in conspiracy theories increased over time? Richey SE, ed. PLOS ONE. 2022;17(7):e0270429. doi:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0270429
13. Jolley D, Marques MD, Cookson D. Shining a spotlight on the dangerous consequences of conspiracy theories. Curr Opin Psychol. 2022;47:101363. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101363