A Blockchain based platform to secure pharmaceutical supply chains

Abstract

Pharmaceuticals industry is a very complex supply chain in which assets (i.e. tablets, syrups and injections etc.) change ownership a few times with little to no data sharing in between the parties involved, due to which the history of the assets is not maintained, hence making it easy for fraudsters to introduce falsified and substandard or counterfeit medicines into the market resulting in health issues to patients and financial losses to drugs manufacturing companies. The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that more than 10% of the drug market in low- and middle-income countries is falsified and substandard. It is one of the major problems that has affected not only Pakistan but many other countries even the developed ones. Counterfeit drugs may be contaminated or contain the wrong or no active ingredient. They could have the right active ingredient but at the wrong proportion. Counterfeit drugs are illegal and can damage a person's health. The outcome of all of this is impacting the health of people and in some of the cases, it may cause life threatening damages. Differentiating between fake and authentic medicines is a very skilled job and layman cannot easily detect fake products. Regulatory authorities and Health departments work in every country to regulate health sector and eliminate threats to public health by checking out for fake medicines and doctors. The purpose of the project is to help the lay man differentiate between fake and authentic medicine by tracking its complete history from its manufacturer to distributor and then to retailor. Helping the public buy authentic medicines not only reduces health issues to patients but also cuts out on the losses to pharmaceutical industry due to counterfeiting. Blockchain technologies have emerged over the last years. While the most explored use case is financial transactions, it has the potential to disrupt other markets. Blockchains facilitate faster transactions and add more transparency. This thesis explores the possibility to reduce counterfeit drugs using blockchain technology called hyperledger fabric (HLF).