Matternet: Using Drones for Medical Deliveries
Matternet (
www.matternet.com) is a pioneer in the use of drones for AMS payload missions. Using its Matternet M2 cargo drones and Matternet Software Platform, this company has been transporting lab samples, pharmaceuticals, and medical supplies for years. The M2 can carry payloads of up to 4.4 pounds over distances of up to 12.4 miles over urban and suburban areas. Designed for efficiency, it allows for fast battery and payload swaps by an operator or robotic station, enabling the drone to land, swap its battery, pick up a package, and take off in under 60 seconds.
To date, M2 drones have completed over 60,000 autonomous flights in major European cities and multiple U.S. states. They are currently being used by UPS
78 July/Aug 2025
Flight Forward in North Carolina for medical deliveries, for home deliveries in the Silicon Valley region of California, as well as for operations in Switzerland.
“We lead in developing commercial drone delivery systems for urban and suburban areas,” said Alex Norman, Matternet’s head of Global Flight Operations and Services. “Matternet is the first company authorized for commercial Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) drone delivery over Swiss cities. It is also the first to
launch routine revenue-generating
operations in the U.S., and the first to achieve both standard Type Certification and Production Certification for delivery drones from the U.S. FAA. We have a strong track record, including the world’s first humanitarian drone delivery missions (2014), the first B2B healthcare operations in Europe (2017) and in the U.S. (2019), and the first drone delivery operations in the Silicon Valley (2024).”
So what’s new for Matternet in AMS? In June 2025, the company announced that it would be partnering with U.K. healthcare
logistics startup Apian to
support the drone delivery network of the National Health Service in London. To date, Apian has delivered over 5,000 patient samples to Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust hospitals, in partnership with global drone operator Wing.
“We’ve refined our M2 drone and automated ground stations with features like temperature-controlled payloads and sub-60-second battery swaps, crucial for urgent medical deliveries,” Norman said. “We are continuously developing our
working intensely on the next-generation platform.”
delivery system further, and are
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