Boots UK Apian drone delivery partnership takes off

Boots UK is working on drone deliveries, featuring temperature controlled storage, with Apian.

The latter is a startup working with the NHS on delivery capability in harder to reach areas.

The Boots UK tie up kicked off last week, with flights between Southampton and the Isle of Wight to ensure critical time sensitive patient needs are being met on the island.

Automated hubs

In the US, meanwhile, Boots owner, Walgreens Boots Alliance, is working on 22 robot powered micro-fulfilment centres to fill customers’ prescriptions.

By 2025, as much as half of the retailer’s total prescription volume could be filled at the automated hubs, according to Rex Swords, Walgreens’ Group President of Centralised Services, Operations and Planning.

The move will free up more of pharmacists’ time to provide health care, Walgreens’ new CEO, former Starbucks Operating Chief Roz Brewer, said.

“We’re doing all of this work, so that the pharmacist has an easier job, so that they can get back to being front and centre, building a relationship with that patient and interacting the way they were trained — the work that they love to do,” she commented.

Pharmacists will continue to fill time sensitive medications and controlled substances at local stores as the robot centric facilities are rolled out.

Drone deliveryStaff WriterBoots UK, Apian, Done delivery, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Robors, Micro fulfilment centresComment