The Counterfeit Pharmaceutical Drug Problem
Did you know that up to 50% of the pharmaceutical drugs sold online are counterfeit? Did you know that the market for counterfeit drugs is somewhere in the $163 billion to $217 billion range, and results in an estimated 450,000 deaths (source: PWC) due to ineffective pills for malaria alone? I was shocked to learn these statistics! It turns out the reason has to do with the inability to properly authenticate that medications received through under-regulated avenues such as many websites compounded with easy access to convincing medical supplies (capsules, bottles, etc.) available to those who would counterfeit these drugs for financial gain. Sure, many avenues of acquiring pharmaceutical drugs are well regulated and safe, but not everyone has access to these providers. Current cloud based systems that can be used to authenticate materials are expensive and unavailable for many smaller providers of medicines.
The FarmaTrust Solution
That's where FarmaTrust seeks to fill the void left by traditional systems. As a blockchain based system, it eliminates the need for expensive cloud based solutions. It also is scalable, immutable, and accessible for even smaller markets to verify their products. Check out this video interview with the FarmaTrust CEO Raja Sharif:
From a technical aspect, their solution uses RESTful API calls to integrate with existing systems, making it non-denominational and easy to integrate into virtually any organizations structure. It also utilizes Ethereum based smart contracts to allow for integration of any special rules or regulations that an organization needs to follow. Ultimately, FarmaTrust sees themselves adding artificial intelligence functions to add some predictive analytics that will improve the supply chain process even more! This will all be done using two tokens, FTT and ZOI. FTT will be a publicly tradeable ERC20 standard token. ZOI tokens can be bought on it's own FarmaTrust exchange as well as generated when FTT tokens are staked at a rate of 500 ZOI for each 7 days per 100 FTT tokens. ZOI tokens are used for serialized product keys and are burned after use whereas the FTT tokens are not burned, but are returned when linked ZOI tokens are burnt. Although this already adds incredible value, there are some potential benefits outside of the primary scope of the project as well!
Extra Perk: Identifying Recalled Batches
Have you ever seen an advertisement encouraging users of a specific drug to check their batch number for a recall? It doesn't really leave you feeling confident in the drug manufacturer when you hear about these things, but inevitably as we develop new and complicated medicines and are subject to equipment and user error on existing lines things like this will happen on occasion. You can bet the drug companies don't like having to broadcast to the world that they've made a mistake with something as delicate as a medicine, the reason they have to advertise this publicity nightmare is because it's currently the only real method to reach out to a large portion of that drugs users.
Having the FarmaTrust blockchain implemented means that as soon as an issue with a medicine is identified, they can immediately check to see where the medicine is at that moment. This means they can potentially get the medicine out of the supply chain prior to it getting into the customer's hands. This way, they can handle the situation without broadcasting a message to everyone in the world that they have defective medicine. It gives them the opportunity to manage the PR issues and minimize the impact of their mistake. This is a feature you hope you never need, but is very valuable to have.
Extra Perk: Defunding Terrorist Organizations
Another benefit outside of the primary scope of the project has to do with de-funding of some very unsavory groups and individuals involved in the counterfeit drug trade. You may be familiar with how money from narcotics flows from wealthy countries to cartels and ultimately to terrorist organizations, if not you can check this article from the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) that recognizes this issue. Similar to how these narcotics flow, the counterfeit drug trade also can be linked to terrorist organizations. Check out this journal from the Case Western Reserve University school of law for more information on this. If you recall from earlier, counterfeit drugs make up somewhere in the $163 billion to $217 billion range annually. Think of the amount of funding that goes to terrorists now that could be eliminated by integrating FarmaTrust's blockchain solution into the supply chain! Check out this video from the FarmaTrust website that discusses the counterfeit drug business in Pakistan:
How To Participate
I hope by now you understand the value of this amazing project. If you're wondering how you can participate, the ICO presale will be live on 6/1/2018. Check out their website and social media accounts to get on top of all the latest news. Make sure to sign up for the newsletter on their website as well so you can recieve notifications about news related to this project!
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