Prescriptions By Drone? UPS And CVS Team Up For Home Medication Delivery

United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) and CVS Health Corp. are launching a partnership which could allow customers to receive medication prescriptions at home, with the drugs being delivered by autonomous drone. The two companies are going to begin by testing the program, which could allow customers to receive their medications in as little as 10 minutes after they place their order.

The UPS Flight Forward unit is also teaming up with health care company Kaiser Permanente and drug source wholesale company Amerisource Bergen on drone solutions. Earlier in October, UPS was granted certification by the Federal Aviation Administration to operate a drone airline.

"When we launched UPS Flight Forward, we said would move quickly to scale this business – now the country's first and only fully-certified drone airline – and that's exactly what we are doing," UPS Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer Scott Price said Monday in a press release. "We started with a health campus environment and are now expanding scale and use-cases. UPS Flight Forward will work with new customers in other industries to design additional solutions for a wide array of last-mile and urgent delivery challenges."

UPS has been testing its drone service at hospitals, beginning at Wakemed Health and Hospitals in Raleigh, North Carolina, in March.

Other major companies have also been trying to get in on the drone delivery business. Uber hopes to one day operate its Ubereats food delivery service by drone, with the company having begun to test the service in San Diego in June.

E-commerce giant Amazon also hopes to deliver packages by drone in 30 minutes or less as part of its Prime Air program. Amazon is still dealing with regulators to get its delivery-drone plans approved.