New Delhi: In the wake of COVID-19 outbreak, India’s B2B marketplace for medical equipment, Medikabazaar has signed an MoU with Zipline, an autonomous on-demand drone delivery service. The partnership can help to reduce down the delivery time of medicines and help in emergency delivery of medical supplies in the future.
The service is expected to become operational by the end of this year or the first quarter of 2021. The former has already partnered with the Govt. of Maharashtra and Serum Institute of India (SII) to build and operate the aforementioned distribution centers.Their collaboration with the MedTech company will further create value to hospitals within the service range of 85 KMs.
Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Vivek Tiwari, Founder and CEO of Medikabazaar said, “Our tie-up with Zipline will help resolve the issue of emergency medical supply in two ways. First, it will assist in the timely delivery of essential medical items, and second, it will also reduce the risk of disease contraction by eliminating close human contact from the supply chain.”
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It can also be used to process doorstep delivery of medical supplies within the containment zones or potential hotspots if the outbreak remains intact or during future outbreaks. The partnership will further provide real-time visibility of on-ground demand throughout the healthcare system.
He further added, ” We are confident that, once operational, the partnership will extend its purview beyond populous localities to other inaccessible regions to save as many lives as possible.”
Medikabazaar and Zipline can onboard several hospitals and integrate the instant delivery service seamlessly into their existing ordering platforms. The hospitals can order directly with Zipline’s ordering system that will be linked to the Medikabazaar platform. The list of medical products would include critical life-saving and cold-chain-dependable pharmaceuticals amongst other essential supplies.
Keller Rinaudo, CEO, Zipline commented, “… We’re likely in for a long-term fight against COVID-19. Using contactless drone logistics will be an important tool in that effort. The work we hope to do here in India will provide the rest of the country with a blueprint for how to build the most resilient and responsive health care system possible.”
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