Russia to Include Drone Medicine Delivery in National Health Insurance
Unmanned aircraft will soon become part of the country’s healthcare infrastructure, speeding up access to vital medicines in remote regions.
Starting in 2026, Russia will officially include drone delivery of medicines, lab samples, and medical supplies in its system of mandatory health insurance (OMS). The decision marks a major step in the digital transformation of healthcare, aimed at improving access and response times—especially in hard-to-reach areas.
The initiative builds on a series of successful regional pilot projects. In 2025, the Courier-30 drone in Nizhny Novgorod Region completed the country’s first medical flight, transporting 100 blood samples between hospitals in under an hour—several times faster than by road, even in difficult weather conditions.
40 Minutes by Air Instead of Two Hours by Water
Tests in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area (Yugra) also proved the concept’s efficiency. A drone covered 65 kilometers in 40 minutes to deliver medicines to a remote village—compared to more than two hours by boat.
By integrating aerial logistics into the OMS program, Russia plans to scale the technology nationwide, creating a unified framework for autonomous medical transport. Experts say the approach could become a global model for healthcare delivery in large, geographically complex countries.
Health Minister Mikhail Murashko emphasized that drone aviation is not only a tool for routine deliveries but also for emergency response — for example, transporting life-saving drugs to the site of road accidents. “In many cases, a drone can reach the scene faster than an ambulance,” Murashko said. “That opens up entirely new possibilities for saving lives.”
