On Aug. 19, 2019, a small quadrotor drone lifted off from London Drugs’ mobile facility in Duncan, B.C., with a package containing an EpiPen® and naloxone before crossing the channel between Salt Spring Island and Vancouver Island. The delivery was announced as Canada’s first-ever beyond visual line-of-sight flight to deliver medicine using a robotic drone.
“The ability to provide medications to patients in remote areas that would otherwise have to travel hours to obtain pharmacy service is significant in so many ways. In the very near future we will be able to provide delivery of prescription medications to an abundance of areas not accessible by vehicle,” says Chris Chiew, London Drugs general manager of pharmacy.