March 21, 2022
Skyports, Swoop Aero and BD Rowa partner to integrate air logistics in the health supply chain
Swoop Aero, Skyports and BD Rowa have announced a strategic partnership to transform health supply chains across Europe, Australia and other global markets through the integration of autonomous air logistics in the pharmaceutical industry. The partnership unlocks a new frontier of value and outcomes for the pharmaceutical sector, the health system and the patients it serves.
The collaboration brings together Swoop Aero and Skyports, world leaders in drone services and technology, with BD Rowa’s expertise in developing and delivering automated technology and services for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.
The three companies share the view that the integration of automated technology solutions plays an important role in improving the health supply chain and system outcomes. Similarly, they consider coordination between specialist providers to deliver integrated solutions that target multiple parts of the supply chain critical to drive transformative change.
There are so many touch points along the journey pharmaceutical products take from the point of manufacture to the point of patient care. Deploying technology at any one of these provides opportunities to improve healthcare system outcomes . By seamlessly integrating sustainable air logistics to deliver medical supplies, we have already seen significant improvements to access to medicine through our operations, said Swoop Aero’s CEO and Co-Founder Eric Peck.
Next level thinking is to look outside your immediate field of focus, at what other leading providers are doing in the supply chain, and explore opportunities where collaboration can create more value. BD Rowa has a strong pedigree in developing automated storing and dispensing solutions for wholesalers, pharmacies, hospitals and patients. We are looking forward to working with them to augment the value they bring to health systems by integrating autonomous air logistics.
Skyports, who leverages Swoop Aero’s technology in operations with the National Health Services (NHS) and Royal Mail in the United Kingdom (UK) as well as FedEx in Ireland, sees healthcare and pharmacy full of high leverage opportunities for drone logistics.
We already know the power that drone logistics can bring to healthcare settings from our work with the NHS in the UK, transporting pathology samples and COVID-19 tests. In just the UK to date, we have saved over 12,000 hours of patient waiting time, meaning that patients can start treatment sooner and get on with their lives. With this partnership with BD Rowa we’re bringing drone delivery to the pharmaceutical sector to provide speed, frequency and reliability to patients located in hard-to-reach communities across the UK, Europe and the Middle East. We look forward to rapidly expanding this service in collaboration with BD Rowa and Swoop Aero, said Alex Brown, Director, Skyports Drone Services.
BD Rowa recently expanded into the last mile delivery space as a way to add further value to its customers and has seen the results of taking a holistic view to value creation. It saw working with market leaders in autonomous air logistics solutions as an obvious extension.
We were impressed with Swoop Aero’s technology and the impact they and Skyports were having deploying it in global markets in conjunction with major players in the healthcare industry. It was clear early on that we shared common ground. We are excited to bring this new technology and the specialist expertise of both Swoop Aero and Skyports to the table in our discussions with customers globally, said Mario Ulrich, Global Industry Leader Pharmaceutical Distribution Center, BD Rowa.