How Blockchain is acting as a Game Changer in Pharmaceutical Industry? What is Blockchain? Blockchain is an open distributed ledger, which organizes data in a series of chronologically grouped transactions referred as blocks. It is specifically designed for supply chains where transactions between two or more parties can be done in a verifiable and permanent fashion that cannot be changed once recorded. It is a disruptive technology that will drive transformational change to the way business is done both internally and externally. This is especially true for the supply chains. Blockchain establishes the records in a permanent way that can be integrated with supply chains and traceability systems. Supply chains in Pharmaceutical industry With the help of blockchain technology, the data can be easily tracked across the entire supply chain at an unimaginable speed. When pharmaceutical industry is concerned, it provides the supply chain leaders the ability to track the pharmaceuticals from the point they are being in the manufacturing plants to the time they are delivered to the customer. The vulnerabilities in pharmaceutical supply chains lead to various weak points such as decreased visibility for tracking and authentication of the products. It allows them to trace each product or item to its source as blockchain technology keeps solid records. A new blockchain pilot project is being explored by the US Food and Drug Administration in the pharmaceutical industry and various ways in which it can be incorporated into the pharmaceutical supply chains. For this, four organizations were selected to be a part of this pilot project including IBM, KPMG, Merck, and Walmart. Each organization being chosen by FDA brings technical knowledge and
comprehensive experience in implementing blockchain technology to this pilot project for the safety, traceability and enhancement of the products. “The ability to leverage existing cloud infrastructure is making enterprise blockchain increasingly affordable and adaptable, helping drug manufacturers, distributors and dispensers meet their patient safety and supply chain integrity goals.” Arun Ghosh, Blockchain Leader, KPMG. The primary objectives of FDA for proposing this are: To reduce the time required to track and trace inventory Help in timely retrieval of the reliable distribution information Increase the data accuracy that is being shared among the network members Help in managing the integrity of the products in the distribution chain such as, whether the products are kept at correct temperatures or not This pilot project of FDA is just one of the many initiatives, utilized to explore the application of blockchain technology in the supply chains of life sciences industry. Group50, a renowned supply chain blockchain consulting firm has created a plug and play permission based blockchain solution built on an IoT platform that is driven by smart contracts. This approach creates an immutable chain of custody with full provenance that mimics the value add workflow in a supply chain. While there are hundreds of uses for blockchain, they are focused on a critical few supply chain use cases like:
Food Aircraft Automotive Compliance and Regulatory Healthcare Oil and Gas Intellectual
Blockchain technology is changing and evolving at a frenetic pace. It will be impossible for people in your organization to stay abreast of those changes. Group50’s supply chain blockchain consultants have expertise in business process design, organizational design and digital technology, coupled with their unique plug and play technology, positions them to be your partner in adopting and managing this transformative technology in a way that is both scalable and sustainable.
Visit: www.group50.com