Blockchain deployed in fight against fake pharmaceuticals in India
pharmafile | August 22, 2018 | News story | Research and Development | India, NITI, blockchain, pharma, technology
Indian policymakers in collaboration with an Indian hospital chain and an American multinational, have initiated plans to deploy blockchain technology in the fight against counterfeit pharmaceutical drugs.
The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog) a policy think-tank of the Government of India “is putting pharma supply chain management in blockchain for complete traceability of drugs from the manufacturer to consumer,” according to the organisation’s CEO Amitabh Kant as he addressed the International Blockchain Congress in Hyderabad at the beginning of August.
NITI Aayog has partnered with the American information technology multinational Oracle and the Indian hospital chain the Apollo Hospitals Group in order to implement the blockchain technology.
The initiative aims to eliminate all channels of counterfeit medical products, including pharmaceuticals, by transferring Apollo Hospitals inventory to a decentralised blockchain platform.
Kant stated that “There is a need to use blockchain to track and trace medicines and spurious drugs. Therefore NITI Aayog, in collaboration with Apollo Hospitals and Oracle is putting pharmaceutical supply chain in blockchain for complete traceability of drugs from manufacturer to consumer to protect our citizens from the menace of spurious medicines”
The blockchain technology will create a decentralised database which will track the supply chain of pharmaceuticals as they move from manufacturers to distributors to pharmacists and consumers. Pharmaceutical ingredients could be incorporated into the blockhain database in the future.
The initiative aims to tackle India’s problem with counterfeit drugs. The country is currently the second largest supplier of illicit prescription drugs in the United States.
Louis Goss
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