We recognize that today’s complex healthcare landscape requires groundbreaking and sustainable solutions that leverage emerging technologies to strengthen health systems and advance the ambition of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including universal health coverage (UHC). And if we are to truly achieve health for everyone, everywhere, our approach must address the gaps that limit access for “last mile” communities.
During World Immunization Week 2019, we announced an innovative new four-year agreement with Zipline to leverage the power of drone technology to strengthen systems, expand access to care, and reach the last mile.
Together with Zipline and its other partners, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gavi Alliance, and the UPS Foundation, we supported the Government of Ghana in establishing a medical drone delivery system to ensure access to crucial health products in some of the nation’s most rural areas. This drone delivery system is a massive step forward for Ghana to realize its ambition of UHC, and it highlights the power of public-private partnerships to maximize impact.
Zipline’s drones are now delivering nearly 150 essential medicine products – including blood, emergency, and routine vaccines, and emergency and essential medicines – to reach an estimated 2,000-2,500 health facilities and 15 million citizens in rural Ghana.
This delivery system enables Pfizer and partners to leverage real-time data to increase supply chain efficiencies for essential, high-volume stocked medicines and medical products, and provide “just-in-time” availability for emergency products.
In the fall of 2021, Zipline and Pfizer launched a pioneering drone delivery program in Ghana, shuttling thousands of doses of the Pfizer and other mRNA Covid vaccines to the hardest-to-reach corners of the country. This was enabled by the completion of the Pfizer/Zipline end-to-end cold chain project where Pfizer packaging and cold chain experts worked with Zipline to test and validate the end-to-end vaccine delivery under strict temperature requirements at national scale.
In the 24 months since launch, Zipline has significantly expanded vaccine deliveries in Ghana from 150,000 doses of Pfizer mRNA vaccines in April 2022 to more than 3.5 million Covid mRNA vaccine doses from various manufacturers as of February 2024.
Separately, Kenya, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, and Rwanda all followed Ghana's lead and launched the Zipline vaccine delivery model, which includes routine vaccinations in addition to all Covid-19 vaccines.
Through unique, impactful partnerships such as this, we seek to build a healthier world for all. We are hopeful that learnings from this program will help drive continued innovation needed to improve global health and patient access in other areas around the world.