The subsidiary of Newcom Group, Mongolian Smart Drone Delivery LLC has achieved a significant milestone by successfully transporting blood plasma for medical use using a drone for the first time.

The company managed to deliver 800 grams of blood plasma from the National Center for Transfusion Medicine of Mongolia to the Mongolian-Japanese Hospital of Mongolian National University of Medical Science (MNUMS), covering a distance of almost five kilometers, in just 11 minutes per trip. Previously, this process used to take 30-40 minutes by car, but the use of a drone has reduced this delivery time by 20 minutes. 

The initiative to use drones for transporting blood and blood products in Mongolia began in 2020 through a collaboration between the National Center for Transfusion Medicine of Mongolia and the Rotary Club of Narlag Ulaanbaatar. A symposium titled “New Smart Logistics in Mongolia” was jointly organized by Mongolian and Japanese governments and private sector organizations on September 28, 2023. The working group representatives from the Mongolian side included the Newcom Group, Mobicom Corporation, TokTok companies, the National Center of Transfusion Medicine, and the Mongolian-Japanese Hospital of MNUMS. From Japan's side, organizations such as Aeronext, KDDI Smart Drone, Seino, and the JICA were part of this collaboration. As part of this project, the first trial of transporting blood and blood products using a specialized logistics drone, known as “AirTruck” was conducted on November 13 of that year. The drone cannot be launched in conditions where the wind speed exceeds five meters per second or during snow and rain.

In Ulaanbaatar City, where approximately half of the country’s population resides, traffic congestion often hampers the timely delivery of emergency medical services. The use of drones for transporting blood and blood products presents a significant improvement in both time efficiency and cost-effectiveness.