This quarter’s malaria expert is Kwasi Antwi. Kwasi is a Health Systems Integration Lead at Zipline and is based in Ghana. Kwasi has a background in business and pharmacy, having earned a Bachelor of Pharmacy from the Kwame Nkrumah’ University of Science and Technology and an Executive Masters in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Ghana. He has worked at Zipline since March 2020.
Zipline's mission is to provide every human on Earth with instant access to vital medical supplies. In order to fulfill its mission, Zipline developed and utilizes the world's fastest and most reliable delivery drone, along with the world's largest autonomous logistics network.
1) What do you find engaging in the malaria space? Can you tell us more about Zipline activities in relation to malaria? What are the biggest challenges of delivering medicines and other health products using drones in Africa?
Zipline is a U.S. multinational aerial logistics company that specialises in the delivery of medical products by drones. Here in Ghana, Zipline has been contracted by the Government to partner the Ministry of Health in strengthening the national supply chain system with its just-in-time drone delivery service. Under the existing contract with the Government, Zipline is to deliver blood products, routine and emergency essential medicines as well as routine and emergency vaccines especially to facilities in rural areas. Antimalarials are key within the portfolio of products delivered. Currently we deliver not just antimalarial products but also Malaria test kits. The objective of this partnership is to help improve timely access to health commodities and by extension the quality of rural health care services.
2) What innovations in the supply chain and logistics sector are you most excited about?
Zipline’s innovation in supply chain system is helping to strengthen Ghana's health supply chain system by:
· eliminating stock-outs at facilities
· eliminating cold chain breakages during transportation of medical supplies
· evening distribution of scarcely available medical supplies across facilities
· improving emergency response in rural areas
· reducing wastage from expiries
Many of our service areas are hard-to-reach as a result of poor roads. With our drones, we are able to fly to all these places with ease. Above all is timely/reliable delivery of all the emergency medical commodities above. We are able to deliver by our drones within 45 mins; a journey that could take about 4 hours by road and even sooner when the facility is closer. During the rainy season last year, Zipline partnered with the Ghana Health Service to deliver medical products to facilities in the Northern sector of the country cut off by floods as a result of the rains. This challenge is a perennial problem that forces communities to manage for weeks and sometimes months without access to any form of medical supplies. Incidentally the season also records spikes in malaria cases making matters even worse. The partnership with the Ghana Health Service helped to ensure access to health commodities including antimalarials and antipyretics throughout the rainy season. Stocks from the Ghana Health Service were centralised at Zipline’s warehouses and flown over the flooded areas to facilities directly by drones.
3) What are the biggest challenges of delivering medicines and other health products using drones in Africa?
There are many gaps within healthcare systems in Africa that present opportunities for aerial logistics intervention. Delivering medical products with drones is just as easy as delivering any other product. The challenge however comes with building problem solving drone use cases with systems that neatly and seamlessly fit within the existing standard operating procedures designed by the managers of healthcare systems. Building an uncomplicated process that works from ordering of a product by the customer, to its delivery by a drone to a specific facility requires alignment with several stakeholders within and without the healthcare space. Given the novelty of drone technology, adoption by stakeholders may take a lot of time and effort. So far, Zipline is the only company delivering medical products at national scale with both Ghana and Rwanda. In Ghana, Zipline has managed to build and integrate distribution systems to complement the country’s last mile distribution system. The country currently has 4 distribution centers reaching close to 12 million people. With the Ministry of Health’s approval, plans are in place to add on 4 more distribution centers to cater for more hard to reach areas in the country made up of islands and riverine communities.