How Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Can Benefit from Blockchain
How Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Can Benefit from Blockchain
Many people today know blockchain for its monetary value and its soaring prices. Released a decade ago, blockchain technology is an online node-to-node ledger that uses mathematical calculations to authenticate every operation on the network. This creates a long chain of events that is not only much more decentralized but also difficult to manipulate. This means it cannot be manipulated or tampered with by anyone, ensuring that everything is genuine from start to finish. For the pharma industry, this is Eureka, given their supply chain management and research and development data needs.
The pharmaceutical industry is not just about the manufacturing and formulation of medicine. There are hundreds of moving pieces that collaborate in an integrated manner to bring the medicine that you require from the manufacturing table to your medicine bag. A thousand things might go south if any part of the process is compromised.
You would find many articles on the web and thousands of scientific journals highlighting blockchain technology use. Still, these papers' focus is mainly on the supply chain aspects of the pharma industry. This is true and a significant concern of the industry nonetheless. But there are other things where blockchain has found its use. Let’s discuss a few we have discovered here at Servblock
Data Protection
Let's face it; there are data-related worries in our hyper-connected era when everything is online. Given the nature of their data and its sensitivity, the pharmaceutical industry's worries are multifaceted. They either store their data on the cloud or in highly secure data centers, which are still vulnerable to cyberattacks. In either of the cases, hackers and cyber theft frequently cause the pharmaceutical industry to lose critical patent and formula information. However, with the arrival of blockchain technology, many industries are using it to save and validate research data without the need for vulnerable data centers. A key feature of blockchain-protected data is its secure integrated authentication since the data is exceptionally decentralized and authenticated by a chain of sophisticated computations. This suggests that the pharmaceutical sector will not lose critical information about novel drug research, clinical trials, pharmaceutical production, and quality control even when there is a compromise at one point.
Robust Supply Chain
COVID-19 has demonstrated the fragility of the pharmaceutical supply chain system. Backorders, tainted products, forged orders, and counterfeit medications have demonstrated the need for a speedy way to verify and make the process more robust. During the last two years, many sectors have begun to use blockchain technology to enhance the supply chain. Because each transaction or record information is available to all stakeholders in the supply chain, blockchain technology enables real-time data access. Since the chain includes manufacturers, suppliers, vendors, and end-user, real-time authentication by authorized users and players ensures that the product is legitimate and is delivered on time. This also provides a realistic timeframe for the product's arrival.
What Are the Concerns?
The first point of worry is the sluggish pace with which traditional industries embrace it. The pharmaceutical industry is no different. Concerns about its robustness, acceptability, regulation, and legality are still being argued in many nations, and there are no universal regulations across different countries. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the process, and it is anticipated that more pharmaceutical businesses will embrace distributed ledger technologies. One report evaluated the pharmaceutical blockchain market for the period, 2020-2030. The Market is estimated to be worth US$212.7 million in 2020 and is projected to reach US$ 25,619.6 million in2030.
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Reference
● Garankina, R. Y., Zakharochkina, E. R., Samoshchenkova, I. F., Lebedeva, N. Y., & Lebedev, A. V. (2018). Blockchain Technology and its Use in the Area of Circulation of Pharmaceuticals. Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, 10(11), 2715-2717.
● Clauson, K. A., Breeden, E. A., Davidson, C., & Mackey, T. K. (2018). Leveraging Blockchain Technology to Enhance Supply Chain Management in Healthcare:: An exploration of challenges and opportunities in the health supply chain. Blockchain in healthcare today.
● Liang, G., Weller, S. R., Luo, F., Zhao, J., & Dong, Z. Y. (2018). Distributed blockchain-based data protection framework for modern power systems against cyber attacks. IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, 10(3), 3162-3173.
● Pharmaceutical Blockchain Market worth US$ 25,619.6 million in2030. Visiongain Research Inc.
