Blockchain: A Boon For Pharma
By Kapil Rajyaguru
As of now, crypto may not be a regulated sector in many countries but pharma is, and luckily for the world, crypto technologies like Blockchain are changing the pharma industry for better.
The pharmaceutical industry is highly regulated as it directly involves the wellbeing of people. Strict rules and vigorous quality control procedures are required to make sure that people get the drugs they need. Still, due to complexity of pharma supply chains and use of ancient documentation methods, circulation of counterfeit drugs is a huge problem among others.
A World Health Organization (WHO) study had estimated, and alarmingly so, that at least 10 percent of the medical products circulating in low- and middle-income countries are either substandard or falsified. These included medicines, vaccines, and medical devices, the WHO said in the research.
Other areas need to be improved across the industry like research and development (R&D), regulatory compliance and clinical trials.
Blockchain technology is uniquely positioned to address the huge problems plaguing the pharmaceutical industry especially after the global covid pandemic.
Here are the top 3 solutions offered by blockchain technology for the pharma industry.
1. Vaccine Supply Chain
Vaccines require low temperatures at all time while being transported and stored. Vaccines lose their efficiency in the absence of a functioning cold chain and become unsafe to use by the time they reach the end user. This is where blockchain-based solutions reduce the overall logistics cost and make supply chains more efficient.
StaTwig is an Indian startup that offers solutions to improve the vaccine supply chain. VaccineLedger allows end-to-end tracing of vaccines throughout the vaccine supply chain.
2. Clinical Trials
All the drugs pass through clinical trial phase before approved by the regulators to make sure they are safe and beneficial to patient. To improve the validity of clinical trials, blockchain-based solutions are now used because of the security, transparency, and immutability of the data they offer.
UK-based startup FarmaTrust develops Ethereum blockchain-based solutions for the pharma industry. The solution allows pharma companies to get quicker regulatory approval and allow direct access to the data to the interested parties.
3. Electronic Prescribing
Manually written prescriptions could lead to misleading information, incorrect dosage, and administration of wrong drug. Patient may lose their prescriptions. Additionally, paper prescriptions are almost impossible to track for doctors. Electronic prescribing addresses these problems, as well as increases safety and reduces wait time at clinics and pharmacies.
BlockMedx is a US-based startup that uses blockchain to offer electronic prescription solutions.
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