Rwanda’s mountainous topography makes ground transportation of medical supplies unreliable — some roads stretching into rural areas remain uncared for and unpaved. Between 25 and 40 per cent of all temperature-sensitive medical supplies sent from urban centres to rural health clinics are wasted because of an unreliable cold-chain infrastructure. Rural clinics are also often subject to stockouts, and patients in need of specialized blood products, drugs and other supplies are unable to acquire them. Zipline, a US-based health logistics company, aims to address the issue of access to medical supplies, largely leapfrogging traditional modes of transportation and various obstacles. Zipline uses drones to deliver blood and other routine and emergency medical supplies from distribution centres to district hospitals and rural health centres. Although the company has been celebrated in the media for its operations, there is little scholarly work on its operations and performance. This has led to some confusion over its scale. We aimed to gain insight into the details of Zipline’s business model, including the infrastructure, regulations and government support that make Zipline possible, and to understand its impact on health outcomes in Rwanda. Our work was entirely based on published materials since our research was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic.