BenQ Healthcare and TinTin Drugstore, both part of Taiwan’s Qisda Group, say they have completed field validation of an AI-enabled “smart pharmacy” workflow combined with drone-based medical delivery for regional and remote healthcare access.
The companies report more than 100 over-water test flights on a route between Donggang and Liuqiu Island, covering a cumulative 1,700 kilometres. They say the model reduced a medicine pickup process that previously took about half a day to around 20 minutes by flying supplies from TinTin Drugstore’s Donggang store on Taiwan’s main island to the Liuqiu health center.
The project, described as “5G AI Pharmacy + Drone”, is supported by Taiwan’s National Development Council (NDC). It combines an AI mission-dispatch and risk-assessment platform, 5G connectivity for real-time communications, and a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drone platform designed for sustained over-water operations. BenQ Healthcare leads the AI integration work, linking pharmacy operations, flight planning and delivery execution into a single workflow.
According to the project description, each mission is planned through an AI dispatch system that performs pre-flight risk assessment and uses real-time image analysis during flight to identify obstacles, vessels, birds and other environmental conditions over open water.
Project representatives said the field validation met applicable pharmaceutical Good Distribution Practice (GDP) requirements and received special-project approval from Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration. The next phase in Taiwan is expected to expand validation across additional healthcare settings and move toward regular commercial operations.
BenQ Healthcare also said it has begun discussions with government and healthcare stakeholders in Australia about whether the Taiwan-tested model could be adapted to local regional and remote healthcare needs, subject to aviation, pharmaceutical distribution and healthcare requirements and developed with local partners.
