Thanks to advancements in technology, patients are seeking a more personalized healthcare experience that is direct, convenient, and tailored to their individual needs. In turn, healthcare companies are seeking to accelerate their growth but yet must do so against increasingly stringent regulatory requirements that often limit rapid technological change. This is compounded further yet by a globally aging patient population, which adds additional strain to the burdens of supply chain and logistics making it increasingly difficult to keep up with the demands of tomorrow.
Today’s pharmaceutical companies are composed of conglomerates of various manufacturing and research facilities located across numerous geographic regions and operating in complex partner ecosystems. As a result, pharmaceutical supply chains are inefficient and ill-equipped to handle the developing demands of tomorrows healthcare needs. This in turn, has resulted in amount of counterfeit and illegally diverted drugs to consecutively increase year over year. According to the Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI), the amount of counterfeit drugs has increased 56% over the past five years alone.
In response to this growing epidemic, the FDA implemented the Drug Supply Chain Security Act, which calls upon the pharmaceutical supply chain to create an “electronic, interoperable system to identify and trace certain specific drugs as they are distributed in the United States.” Likewise, the European union came forth with a plan that all prescription medications must come with a security feature to allow the drug dispensers such as pharmacies, hospitals, and healthcare providers to verify their authenticity. Thus, ensuring the security of the supply chain is becoming vitally important for pharmaceutical companies and will help them to overcome the current market challenges being faced today.
The FarmaTrust Blockchain Solution for Pharmaceutical Supply Chain
FarmaTrust is a developing blockchain solution that will enable end-to-end tracking of medicinal products throughout the pharmaceutical supply chain. By utilizing the blockchain-based Zoi Supply Chain Information Exchange platform, FarmTrust, will be able to accurately and securely record data using serialised packages as they pass through various points in the supply chain lifecycle. This is achieved by utilizing “a unique digital token to reference every Serialized Product Key from point of manufacture to point of sale or return.”
Not only will this provide greater transparency, accuracy, and tracking capabilities of all activities across the supply chain but it will also ensure compliance with the track and trace regulatory and reporting requirements set forth by the United States and European Union. This is because, FarmTrust also has the capability “to automate payment processes, regulatory reportings, as well as audit trail requirements within and between companies and as imposed by law.”
FarmaTrust – The Solution to Drug Diversion
Not only are counterfeit drugs being introduced into the supply chain a problem but so to are the drugs being diverted out of the supply chain. For instance, in 2015, Massachusetts General Hospital payed $2.3 Million dollars due to drug diversion. This was the result of lax controls at the hospital that allowed two employees to divert almost 16,000 oxycodone pills from an automated dispensing machine. Although, this was the largest settlement paid out to date it is far from the only incident. In fact, some of the top hospitals in the United States including University of Michigan and Emory University Hospital have had reports of massive amount of pills being diverted from its inventory.
FarmTrust will not only be able to prevent fake and counterfeit medications from easily entering the consumer market but it will also be able to prevent illegal diversion of drugs as well. By providing a securely connected and integrated system, FarmTrust will not only be able to provide the regulatory solution needed in order to comply with the regulation set forth but will also offer the technological advances needed in the pharmaceutical supply chain in order to help overcome todays obstacles to help meet tomorrows healthcare needs.