Blockchain, popularized by Bitcoin, has quickly made waves throughout almost every sector of the economy. Blockchain technology is being utilized by various industries, including finance, automotive, real estate, food & jewelry supply chain management, and logistics, to streamline various processes for their respective companies.
As recent worldwide incidents demonstrate, pharmaceutical industry management requires an enhanced, more reliable, and efficient system to operate effectively and reliably. COVID-19 vaccination initiative draws attention to measures intended to strengthen supply chains for improved reliability, safety and efficiency.
Under the US Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), pharmaceutical businesses are mandated by Congress to track and serialize pharmaceuticals that arrive on US shores in accordance with their mandated reporting obligations. Pharma and Blockchain can assist businesses by aiding with supply chain monitoring and problem-solving activities as well as offering improved data security and privacy features; additionally, Blockchain's well-known security characteristics make it suitable for managing sensitive information like clinical trials or R&D activities.
Blockchain Technology Offers Huge Advantages To The Pharmaceutical Sector
Blockchain technology's diverse features enable it to be applied across several sectors and applications, including pharmaceutical organizations. Pharmaceutical organizations are exploring its use as a more secure business solution that may ease some of the main issues plaguing traditional pharma companies, such as low scientific productivity, data discrepancies, supply chain disruption, and stagnation.
The primary applications of blockchain technology in the pharmaceutical sector are:
Supply Chain Tracking
Blockchain offers the pharmaceutical industry a possible remedy for supply chain issues. Its advanced features allow complete medication traceability from manufacturers to final customers; should any issues arise, it also helps identify where the chain breaks down exactly in its supply chains.
Each step in a drug supply chain - production, shipping, registration, warehousing, and sales - will be carefully tracked by Blockchain if its design incorporates such technologies. Should any delivery issues arise during shipping processes, Blockchain could help pinpoint who was last involved before any issues arose.
Blockchain technology can also be utilized as a method for cold chain tracking. This enables producers to monitor and confirm the consistency of temperature across pharmaceutical supply chains according to rules established by agencies like the FDA or WHO. Utilizing this blockchain tracking method from production all the way to delivery may aid in the prevention of diversion or counterfeiting activities.
Regulatory Compliances
Governments and other regulatory bodies have mandated stringent requirements that pharmaceutical businesses must abide by. Blockchain technology will play a pivotal role in helping pharmaceutical companies meet them; FDA regulations such as Falsified Medicines Directive 2011/62/EU (FMD), which demands serialized medication at the unit level; US regulations like Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), which demand serialization at this same unit level are examples. Blockchain offers safe data movement, which facilitates compliance with these rules - thus simplifying regulatory audits as distributed ledger networks simplify regulatory audits.
Accelerating Drug Research and Development
Drug development can be further advanced using blockchain technology's ability to securely transport information over large networks. This offers many advantages for pharmaceutical businesses and researchers working remotely on drug discovery processes. Data sharing enables easier collaboration among researchers who create medications more rapidly.
Blockchain facilitates faster and safer movement of tech and data between platforms, with its security measures providing patients and researchers peace of mind that patient information and research remain intact without change or interference from third parties. IP protection may be established and enforced via blockchain smart contracts without human involvement; furthermore, using AI/ML technologies alongside Blockchain may speed up data mining/analysis, thus speeding up pharmaceutical R&D.
Protecting Clinical Trials
One main concern for people participating in clinical studies is transparency. Pharma firms could utilize blockchain technology to increase clinical trial transparency and confidence. Data for trial results could be recorded through distributed ledger technology like Blockchain; making clinical study protocols more transparent as a result.
Patients taking part in clinical studies may access all necessary information from blockchain ledgers during trial procedures to comprehend the advances and risks involved. Blockchain also plays an instrumental role in managing patient consent - another benefit blockchain provides to clinical studies.
Clinical studies often face permission-related difficulties, including incomplete forms, signed consent documents not being approved in a timely fashion, missing protocols, and failing to notify patients about updated protocols, etc. To address this problem, blockchain technology allows patients to independently verify protocol changes and consent forms at any time through independent verification - no one can tamper with its integrity since its ledger cannot be altered.
Keeping The Investors Informed
Information asymmetry is the major challenge facing pharmaceutical R&D. Research and development are complex processes, making it difficult to obtain relevant details of this process - creating an imbalance of information between investors, pharmaceutical companies, and investors.
Complex appraisal procedures make evaluating their value difficult for investors to assess accurately, raising doubts among them about potential returns on investment. At the same time, pharmaceutical companies and scientists need to maintain data for research procedures at early stages; blockchain technology could assist here as well.
Researchers and manufacturers can utilize blockchain networks to manage the research process, giving investors greater access to data while monitoring who owns intellectual property. Smart contracts may automate confidentiality-related transactions to reduce transaction costs and times, ultimately creating efficient collaboration among investors, researchers, businesses, and stakeholders using this revolutionary technology.
Read More: Unlocking the Future: How Blockchain Technology Can Make You Smart and Secure
Blockchain And Healthcare Data Security
No doubt, it should come as no surprise that one of the primary uses for Blockchain in healthcare today is safeguarding medical records. One of the top concerns within the sector is security. Between July 2021 and June 2022, there were 692 significant breaches involving healthcare data theft by thieves who stole health and genetic test records, credit card data, and bank information from various databases.
Blockchain technology is ideal for security applications because it maintains an incorruptible, decentralized log of patient information without being corruptible or centralized. Furthermore, its intricate security protocols protect patient confidentiality, ensuring data stays both transparent and private. This allows quick information sharing between patients, physicians, and healthcare professionals via its decentralized structure.
Medical Supply Chain Management And Blockchain
What level of understanding do we possess of our medications, their source, and any potential tampering with their contents? The medical supply chain - or its connection between laboratories and markets - primarily addresses such topics.
Blockchain's decentralization virtually ensures complete transparency during shipping processes, which has significant ramifications for pharmaceutical supply chain management. Once created for each drug's point of origination and tracking has begun, all relevant details pertaining to who handled and delivered it until customer receipt. Even emissions can be recorded.
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Conclusion
Blockchain promises to become the next technological revolution, having long been on our radar screen. Although still relatively young in terms of adoption rates and applications, more businesses than ever before are turning their focus toward pilot programs that utilize this emerging platform, both to learn its advantages and overcome any difficulties involved with running nodes, as well as develop innovative procedures using this new tool.
Blockchain's uniqueness and secure database structure have already seen it transform the pharmaceutical sector, beginning to revolutionize R&D, production and research costs significantly more efficiently than before. Blockchain may yet see further use cases emerge within this business sector as time passes - especially given how much pharmaceutical firms spend annually on R&D, production, and research costs alone. With so much potential at play here, its introduction may only have begun.
