Amazon is testing drones to deliver your medications in an hour or less

Amazon is testing a service that will drop its pharmacy patients' medications on their doorsteps via drone in an hour or less.

It is piloting the drone delivery service with customers in College Station, Texas, the company said Wednesday. Deliveries from Amazon Pharmacy are made within 60 minutes of a patient placing an order, at no extra cost.

Customers can have more than 500 medications to treat conditions like flu, asthma and pneumonia delivered.

The aim is to get patients' ailments treated as quickly as possible to deliver better medical care. 

"We're taught from the first days of medical school that there is a golden window that matters in clinical medicine," Amazon Pharmacy chief medical officer Dr. Vin Gupta said in a statement Wednesday. "That's the time between when a patient feels unwell and when they're able to get treatment."

The drone delivery is aimed at narrowing that window, Gupta added.

Drones can be speedy because they don't have to contend with vehicular traffic. 

"Our drones fly over traffic, eliminating the excess time a customer's package might spend in transit on the road," said Calsee Hendrickson, director of product and program management at Prime Air. "That's the beauty of drone delivery, and medications were the first thing our customers said they also want delivered quickly via drone. Speed and convenience top the wish list for health purchases."

The drones fly at least 40 meters high and have built-in sensors that allow them to navigate around obstacles in the air.

When they arrive at a customer's home, the drones rely on cameras to detect people and pets as well as objects before they release their packages. 

Customers can retrieve their meds without interacting with the drones, the company added. 

Amazon has already tested drone delivery with other items, safely delivering hundreds of non-pharmaceutical goods within College Station over the past year.