Hardware-Enabled Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Security

The pharmaceutical supply chain is the pathway through which prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs are delivered from manufacturing sites to patients. Technological innovations, price fluctuations of raw materials, as well as tax, regulatory, and market demands are driving change and making the pharmaceutical supply chain more complex. Traditional supply chain management methods struggle to protect the pharmaceutical supply chain, maintain its integrity, enhance customer confidence, and aid regulators in tracking medicines. To develop effective measures that secure the pharmaceutical supply chain, it is important that the community is aware of the state-of-the-art capabilities available to the supply chain owners and participants. In this article, we will be presenting a survey of existing hardware-enabled pharmaceutical supply chain security schemes and their limitations. We also highlight the current challenges and point out future research directions. This survey should be of interest to government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and pharmacies, and all others involved in the provenance and authenticity of medicines and the integrity of the pharmaceutical supply chain.