Big Pharma Urges to Adopt Blockchain to Track Prescription Drugs

• Toshendra Kumar Sharma
• February 25, 2020

Representatives of the pharma supply chain, 25 leading pharmaceutical manufacturers, logistic partners, and other distributors, urges the FDA to adopt blockchain technology for tracking prescription drugsafter concluding a pilot program with the US Meals and Drug Administration.

In early 2019, the FDA began accepting proposals seeking to assist the office meet the 2023 necessities of the Drug Supply Chain and Security Act (DSCSA) – which requires the pharmaceutical to track and trace “judicial modifications in ownership of pharmaceuticals within the supply chain.” Last year in June 2019, the MediLedger Project was permitted by the FDA, comprising a working group of 25 major firms working in the pharmaceutical to evaluate the blockchain-based MediLedger Network as a vehicle for monitoring prescription medicines in the United States.

The members of the MediLedger community include multinational pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, drug wholesaler AmerisourceBergen, operator of the United States’ second-largest pharmacy chain Walgreens, multinational retail corporation Walmart, and delivery services company FedEx.

The report states the absence of a central point of data sharing will result in the US pharmaceutical supply falling behind international competitors as companies “struggle with keeping data accurately and completely shared across a wide variety of partners, systems and technical formats. 

Zero-knowledge-proofs (ZKF) to give protection to confidential knowledge

By maintaining ZKF technology,  data privacy requirements of the pharmaceutical industry can be upheld, according to the Report. This ensures that no business intelligence of confidential data is shared thus sustaining the immutability of the blockchain.

 

The project MediLedger constitutes three fundamental technologies: a private messaging system between trading partners, blockchain as an immutable, shared ledger for transaction validification and smart contract execution, and zero-knowledge to ensure robust privacy for messaging and transfers.

The report says that “blockchain has the capability to be the technology underlying an interoperable system for the pharmaceutical supply chain,” that it is “a complex solution” that would require a stabilization period.

 

Collaborating Firms Evaluate MediLedger

The Genentech consultant acknowledged  saying that the pilot “serves as a key milestone in demonstrating that blockchain expertise is a viable possibility to tackle the complexity of constructing an interoperable system wanted for DSCSA 2023.”

Mack MacKenzie, Pfizer’s VP of digital market entry and income administration options, stated his expressions with the pilot’s execution, stating: “I’m very inspired by this demonstration of broad trade dedication to an interoperable system that achieves DSCSA compliance. It’s thrilling to think about how we are able to construct on this success to collectively ship transformative digital providers that add extra worth for sufferers.”

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