Blockchain: A Solution for Improved Traceability with Reduced Counterfeits in Supply Chain of Drugs

Abstract

The Pharmaceutical supply chain needs a huge attention while developing technology based solutions as there is a great need of surveillance in production and distribution of fake, substandard, counterfeit and grey market medicines which account for hundreds of billions per year across the globe. Counterfeit drugs have captured the global markets over the period and affecting and risking many lives in a large [7], solutions to address these have become inevitable. Studies have uncovered a lot of pharmaceutical products, medical devices and biologics have been subject to counterfeiting the entire drug supply chain which is susceptible to lots of pharmaceutical crime. The international growth of the pharmaceutical market and a rise in global drug sales leading to emergence of various forms of technology and digital health platforms has given rise to many supply chain solutions. In addition to pharmaceutical frauds, improving security and addressing vulnerabilities of the medical commodities is a priority area. This leads to the formation of many technology solutions aimed at making supply chains secure, trustable and removing counterfeit drugs from it by applying various different methods and approaches. Our system proposes to leverage blockchain technology to make the supply chain of drugs transparent to increase trust among actors and provide security, authenticity and traceability with the help of IoT.