Abstract
This study tests the impact of drone transportation on the quality of a medicine. Modelling the critical process parameters of drone flight, the effects of temperature and vibration on insulin were investigated using the pharmacopoeia methods. The medicine, Actrapid, (3.5 mg/mL of insulin), was flown by a quad-rotor drone. Insulin stored between −20 and 40 °C for 30 mins, and subjected to vibration (0–40 Hz, 25 °C, 30 mins) passed the pharmacopeia tests. Dynamic light scattering identified the active tetrameric and hexameric forms of insulin post testing. Vibration frequencies during drone flight were between 0.1 and 3.4 Hz. There was no evidence of visible insulin aggregates following the drone transportation. The differences in UV absorbance readings between flown Actrapid and controls were insignificant (p = 0.89). No adverse impact of drone transport on insulin was observed. This study provides supporting evidence that drone transportation of medicinal products containing insulin is feasible. The authors recommend that when considering the drone delivery of medicines five tests need to be applied. These tests must determine the safe flight time and range, the quality of the medicine post flight, the onboard conditions experienced by the medicine, the security of the drone supply chain and the effect of drone failure on both the medicine and the environment.
Highlights
Unmanned aircraft systems were historically used exclusively by the military [1]
Our work indicates that higher storage temperatures for insulin over short periods may be acceptable, as supported by the samples stored at 40 ◦ C for 30 minutes passing the British Pharmacopoeia (BP) test, which reinforces the potential for safe delivery of insulin by drones in hotter climates
The outcome of this study indicates that insulin solutions transported for these drone flight times would arrive in a stable condition and pass the BP quality test
Summary
The use of remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) and small drones has expanded to perform civilian tasks [1,2] such as, supporting search and rescue operations [2,3,4], monitoring weather and traffic flows [5], delivering goods [4,6], and as a platform for aerial photography. One of the most exciting areas of drone development is within the healthcare industries Such applications include delivering medicines, vaccines [7], blood [8] and other medical supplies [9,10]. United Parcel Service and Zipline have been working on a drone network to allow 50–150 daily deliveries of blood and vaccines to 20 clinics in remote areas of Rwanda, Africa [4]. The Californian drone company, Matternet, has delivered medications to camps in Drones 2019, 3, 52; doi:10.3390/drones3030052 www.mdpi.com/journal/drones
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