Blockchain Technology to Help Pharmaceutical Companies Track Prescription Drugs
Blockchain Technology to Help Pharmaceutical Companies Track Prescription Drugs
Blockchain technology has expanded in innovation, usefulness, and diversity in recent years. It has evolved from a mere rival to the existing banking system to include other avenues like healthcare and supply chain. This has also benefited one of the most critical industries in healthcare, notably the pharmaceutical industry.
The pharmaceutical sector is more than simply the production of critical items for sustainable healthcare; it is a complicated process with numerous moving parts, such as supply chain management, where most of the issues and gaps are. Companies like Servblock offer a whole suite of Blockchain applications for the pharmaceutical industry. In this example, we will take a look at traceability.
Recent research on the pharmaceutical business and its vast blockchain has found that the rate of pharma industry development is overmatched to the industry's already stretched supply chain, which is facing the challenges of:
● Transparency
● Sustainability
● Time constraints
● Trust
● Counterfeit drugs
We have previously covered how the blockchain and its robust architecture of multi-node systems have encouraged transparency and sustainability concerns. Yet, the problem of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and trust remains in most contexts.
A comprehensive examination of the literature reveals that blockchain is revolutionising some of the most critical components of the pharmaceutical supply chain: trust and counterfeit pharmaceuticals, on top of prescription drugs, which are already under surveillance due to their increased risk of misuse.
How will Blockchain Help in Drug Tracing and Tracking?
A pharmaceutical corporation does not get a clean chit after its manufactured product goes through its outer gate; instead, it embarks on an uncertain path. There is a risk that the cargo may be delayed, the medications will be substituted with fake or low-quality pharmaceuticals, or the drug will not be what was expected. Blockchain provides a solution to all of these problems.
The solution is a unique code or blockchain 'hash' that is irreplaceable, immutable, and unalterable. Because the code or medicine ID on each strip is unique, every pill is accounted for and can be tracked to where it is in the process, is it still on its way, or has it been altered?
One of the pharma supply chain parties is the consumer, who also uses the same key to access information on the drug received from the pharmacy. This information or trading strategy is unique since it is unchangeable, can not be altered unilaterally, and is constantly available on the network. So a patient or customer can fully monitor and trace their prescription medicine from its manufacturing point to its endpoint, as well as validate its legitimacy, using simple code that is transparent, sustainable, open, and permanent.
This is one of the critical components and thrusts that pharma is adopting to have the ability to change the face of the modern healthcare system.
In recent years, multinational pharma has used blockchain to track and authenticate the usage of the COVID-19 vaccination. This has not only boosted the vaccination's feasibility but also demonstrated that the blockchain has provided robustness to the existing system.
Blockchain, a Permanent Feature of Pharma “Track N' Trace” System
As previously established, blockchain has emerged as the only feasible way to disentangle the existing issues for pharma sustainability, trust, and deterrent against existing medicine counterfeit problems. It is also affordable and visible to all node partners, including end users. Further development is also happening rapidly, as blockchain gains new functionality with each research article and experiment.
According to research, 80 % of pharma businesses are keen to participate in the new technology that is expedited by the pandemic.
Reference:
● Zakari, N., Al-Razgan, M., Alsaadi, A., Alshareef, H., Alashaikh, L., Alharbi, M., ... & Alotaibi, S. (2022). Blockchain technology in the pharmaceutical industry: a systematic review. PeerJ Computer Science, 8, e840.
● Musamih, A., Salah, K., Jayaraman, R., Arshad, J., Debe, M., Al-Hammadi, Y., & Ellahham, S. (2021). A blockchain-based approach for drug traceability in healthcare supply chain. IEEE access, 9, 9728-9743.
● Uddin, M., Salah, K., Jayaraman, R., Pesic, S., & Ellahham, S. (2021). Blockchain for drug traceability: Architectures and open challenges. Health Informatics Journal, 27(2), 14604582211011228.
● Haq, I., & Esuka, O. M. (2018). Blockchain technology in pharmaceutical industry to prevent counterfeit drugs. International Journal of Computer Applications, 180(25), 8-12.
