Fake drugs have been slowly appearing all over the world. These drugs typically have greatly modified ingredients that severely affect the way the drug reacts with the illness or disease it is meant to treat. Unfortunately, these medicines sold under false pretenses can lead to the death of the patients involved.
While it seems unbelievable that fraudsters could stomach ripping off the sick or even dying, they do. It's also surprising how little press something like this actually gets. It's not something I ever would have thought about, but now it seems like it should be very obvious. It's a low risk, easy avenue for people to try to scam money out of patients and even medical facilities who can receive these drugs mistakenly.
What are we going to do about it though? Many don't know. There's just too much rampant abuse for them to verify all of these drugs to be sure that they are safe. There are more and more of them being found and destroyed. The problem though, seems to be getting larger rather than smaller. We need a more efficient manner of dealing with these fraudsters, and their counterfeit wares. Enter the blockchain! FarmaTrust is creating a global tracking system on the blockchain to combat these issues and to help save countless lives.
The system creates a sort of accountability for every step in the supply chain. All of the information for a specific product is recorded as a "packet". These informational packets will then need to interact with the blockchain. This is done by use of the FarmaTrust application, which scans the information so it can be recorded on the ledger. The first step of this process happens at the manufacturer level. Next, the product goes to the distributor. The distributor must also scan the packet using their own app. This allows them to verify that the drugs they have received are from a legitimate manufacturer, and not from a counterfeit operation. This also establishes the second stop on the ledger that leaves a verifiable trail for the drug in question.
Once they've satisfied their requirements, the package can be delivered to the pharmacy or hospital that distributes treatment and drugs to their patients. The hospital can scan the packages they've received too! They can then track where this shipment has been and to verify nothing has changed along the supply chain that looks suspicious. Once they are certain the shipment is genuine they can distribute the drugs to their patients. Finally, the consumer also has the ability to view the public ledger. Instead of trusting that their product is genuine, they can verify it for themselves and see everywhere the product has been from manufacturer all the way to where they picked it up.
In addition to safety, a process like this can also serve to make supply chains more efficient. With a tracking system in place there will be less lost product. Everything can be accounted for cheaper and easier than it was before. This can reduce the overhead of many manufacturers or even medical facilities. They can then pass these savings on to the consumer to lower the acquisition cost of many drugs.
The system also allows for automated reporting to regulatory agencies which solves a major headache for many medical related companies and organizations. The blockchain will soon transform the way we handle many things in our everyday lives. FarmaTrust and the blockchain will not only make our lives more efficient, but they will also make them safer.
This was my entry for the Original Works contest.
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