ABzero, the Italian startup that carries blood with the drone to BioUpper

The BioUpper project is an initiative promoted by Novartis and Fondazione Cariplo with the involvement of IBM and the cooperation of Cariplo Factory: a day devoted to the meeting between the starup and potential investors has been held in Milan in latest days. It was a nice chance to take inventory of the startup universe and the most exciting trends of the near future in the life science industry.

I encountered Marco Venturelli, CFO of Novartis Farma, to whom I wondered what advantage a multinational business has in a project like BioUpper, an significant part of its R&D engagement. For a business like Novartis, which is very powerful in drug research, stimulating and absorbing innovation from start-ups operating in nearby industries, such as the so-called MedTech, is very exciting. A practical instance is Confirmo, an app constructed with a comprehension evaluation engine that promotes patients in understanding and legal recognition of medical processes. Informed consent is a basic piece for a colossus of clinical studies. Confirmo has created a more understandable patient information system than the classic sheet bundle to which a signature is placed. This is a modality that is already complicated for what concerns informed consent in other industries (banks, insurance, and so on), but applied to clinical research, where patients and families are in a weakness condition, it is still more. Confirmo utilizes an app that makes the data of the patient more gradual and transparent, and above all that he also uses questions to evaluate the individual concerned's true level of comprehension, thus favoring permission only when he is really' informed.' Today Confirmo is a instrument used by Novartis after the first steps as a startup.

Among the startups current at the case, I managed to chat with ABzero, a specific project focused on using drones to transport blood bags. ABzero was founded as a spin-off of the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, a firm from Pisa. An experimental project has already been triggered by the business, with a path between Pisa and Pontedera. It uses a commercially available drone (DJI Matrice 600), but mainly focuses on the interface and the transport capsule to make the system usable by hospital operators autonomously, without requiring a pilot's presence.

On the African continent and in neighboring Switzerland similar initiatives are already active, but they are quite uncommon in Italy. ABzero worked with ENAC to initiate experiments and provide paths for testing. When fully operational, drone use should bring advantages in terms of both moment and cost compared to road transport, with the benefit of being independent of traffic issues. The capsule is intended according to the law to hold blood bags, keeping the right temperature through the insulating cover.

The scheme has also shown interesting application areas for the transport of drugs, such as some compounds for the therapy of tumors that presently need to be ready and that presently involve the patient's presence in the hospital. One day, using the drone could take the new preparation straight to the patient's home, but the first step will be to make them move towards delocalized structures, such as local hospitals, whose network could be covered by set paths.

The drone will be able to cover a distance of up to 70 km between one hospital and another, flying in any weather situation, and carrying up to 10 blood bags and cruising speeds of up to 70 km / h, according to the project. It may also be possible to transport organs in the future.