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The entire pharmaceutical industry has been booming, from the manufacturing of clinical trial materials to support research studies to the regulated medicines on the pharmacy shelves. It has been one of the top industry performers of the past three decades.
By maintaining the highest safety and quality standards, many pharma business units along the supply chain, such as research and development materials, manufacturing, sales and marketing, have enjoyed rising profits. However, in recent years the industry has been showing a gradual decline in performance, due to the many challenges and “growing pains” facing the industry.
Lost ingredients in the supply chain, inactive chemicals due to inefficient cold-chain monitoring, wrongly prescribed medicines from faulty computer systems, counterfeit medicines because of gaps in security — all of these significant challenges have created demand for utilization of the latest technology to maintain visibility across the supply chain. It has come to the attention in many pharmaceutical communities that Blockchain technology can effectively repair all of these problems.
Blockchain, most commonly referred to as an electronic ledger or sheet, can securely record transactions between several parties, and in a chronological order. The features of this technology make it a very attractive tool to implement for a number of reasons.
The supply chain in the pharmaceutical industry is enormously complex, with products changing ownership from suppliers to manufacturers, distributors, and on to the re-packagers and wholesalers before finally reaching the end-consumer. It is widely known to be very difficult for anyone within the pharmaceutical supply chain to track any one product’s authenticity from start to finish. This major inefficiency ultimately results in loss of financial gains from current and future products, as well as overall loss of trust in the market.
Product portfolios have grown much more complex, and with many niche products and generics being developed for new markets, it’s only going to get even more complex. Over-the-counter (OTC) products sold in large drugstore chains are requiring high standards just the same as the prescription products, which has created a difficult path to profit for most companies.
Regulatory officials continue to pressure the large pharmaceutical conglomerates to lower prices on their consumer drugs, as these same drugs are being counterfeited at an extremely high rate, forcing them to create more robust supply chains to ensure complete traceability along the way. With all of these operational and regulatory constraints put on the supply chains, it is necessary to integrate Blockchain technology in order to address these challenges and return quality-driven, cost-effective products back to market.
Blockchain is a platform that develops opportunities to increase trust and transparency with all business units being able to track products throughout the entire supply chain. With blockchain, the drug packaging could be scanned via barcode at any point in the chain, and also whenever the drugs change ownership. Only trusted parties would be granted the access to add information on the blockchain, and all activities would be shown in real time, as opposed to hours or even days of wait time with regular supply chain logistics systems. All parties involved in the process, from the manufacturers to the patients and consumers, would also be able to scan the barcode and see the complete history path of the product.
An optimized blockchain platform would include drug identification, verification, and instant notifications when illegitimate drugs are found or unauthorized edits are made in the system. Once blockchain is completely integrated into the supply chain, each unit of medicine will have a customized identification tag, allowing for seamless transfer of ownership through a trusted and verifiable network that is transparent and totally secure, from upstream suppliers to downstream patients and consumers.
The overall benefits of blockchain are enormous, from data security throughout the supply chain to full regulatory compliance throughout the industry. However, creating a truly integrated, global-scale operation is no easy task especially for every pharmaceutical company out there. If a company is interested in blockchain, they must carefully plan to thoroughly educate themselves, evaluate the technology, and explore if the system is a valuable asset for their products.
New strategies are starting to be developed for blockchain in the pharmaceutical industry, such as cloud-based networks that enable end-to-end visibility and complete collaboration throughout all of the supply chain partners. Other strategies combine cloud-based networks with decision-support applications using the large amounts of data in the system. Both of these strategies will ultimately increase the quality of the industry by creating higher on-shelf availability of products, lower inventories, and higher margins of profit. Many pharmaceutical companies have already adopted some of these beneficial strategies putting themselves ahead of their competition.
In the future, blockchain will revolutionize the industry and eventually become a common element within every major pharmaceutical operation. Currently blockchain technology is adapting and integrating into the industry gradually and with a great response, but it still remains to be seen whether or not it will impact the overall distribution on a global-scale. One thing we do know is the world of pharmaceuticals works at a very fast pace, and blockchain is surely a necessity for future generations.
The original article was published on Disruptordaily
About the author:
Gunjan Bhardwaj is the founder and CEO of Innoplexus, a leader in AI and analytics as a service for life science industries. With a background at Boston Consulting Group and Ernst & Young, he bridges the worlds of AI, consulting, and life science to drive innovation.
Kampuni ya Innoplexus na kampuni ya dawa ya phytopharmaceutical Dr.D. wanafanya ushirikiano wa kuendeleza teknolojia ya AI katika sekta ya dawa, kuanzia utengenezaji wa vifaa vya majaribio ya kliniki na kusaidia masomo ya utafiti hadi dawa zinazodhibitiwa kwenye rafu za maduka ya dawa. Imekuwa moja ya sekta ya juu performers ya miongo mitatu iliyopita. Kwa kudumisha viwango vya juu vya usalama na ubora, vitengo vingi vya biashara ya dawa kwenye mlolongo wa usambazaji, kama vile vifaa vya utafiti na maendeleo, utengenezaji, mauzo na uuzaji, vimefurahia faida inayoongezeka. Hata hivyo, katika miaka ya hivi karibuni sekta hiyo imekuwa kuonyesha kupungua hatua kwa hatua katika utendaji, kutokana na changamoto nyingi na "kuongezeka maumivu" inakabiliwa na sekta hiyo. Vifaa vilivyopotea katika mlolongo wa usambazaji, kemikali zisizo na kazi kutokana na ufuatiliaji usiofaa wa mlolongo wa baridi, dawa zilizopendekezwa vibaya kutoka kwa mifumo ya kompyuta isiyofaa, dawa bandia kwa sababu ya mapungufu ya usalama - changamoto hizi zote kubwa zimeunda mahitaji ya matumizi ya teknolojia ya kisasa ili kudumisha mwonekano katika mlolongo wa usambazaji. Kwa hivyo, kwa sababu ya kuvutia kwa wafanyabiashara wa dawa, teknolojia ya blockchain inaweza kuondoa shida hizi. Blockchain, kwa kawaida inajulikana kama ledger ya elektroniki au karatasi, inaweza kurekodi kwa usalama shughuli kati ya pande kadhaa, na kwa utaratibu wa muda. Sifa za teknolojia hii kufanya hivyo chombo kuvutia sana kutekeleza kwa sababu kadhaa. Mnyororo wa usambazaji katika sekta ya dawa ni ngumu sana, na bidhaa kubadilisha umiliki kutoka wauzaji kwa wazalishaji, wasambazaji, na juu ya re-packers na wauzaji wa jumla kabla ya hatimaye kufikia watumiaji wa mwisho. Ni wazi kuwa ni vigumu sana kwa mtu yeyote ndani ya mlolongo wa usambazaji wa dawa kufuatilia uhalisi wa bidhaa yoyote moja kutoka mwanzo hadi mwisho. Hii hasara kubwa hatimaye husababisha hasara ya faida ya kifedha kutoka kwa bidhaa za sasa na za baadaye, pamoja na hasara ya jumla ya imani katika soko. Portfolio za bidhaa zimekua ngumu zaidi, na na bidhaa nyingi za niche na generics zinazotengenezwa kwa masoko mapya, itakuwa ngumu zaidi. Bidhaa za OTC zinazouzwa katika minyororo mikubwa ya maduka ya dawa zinahitaji viwango vya juu sawa na bidhaa za dawa, ambayo imeunda njia ngumu ya faida kwa kampuni nyingi. "Wafisa wa udhibiti wanaendelea kushinikiza makampuni makubwa ya dawa kupunguza bei ya dawa zao za watumiaji, kwani dawa hizo hizo zinadanganywa kwa kiwango cha juu sana, na kuwafanya kuunda minyororo ya usambazaji thabiti zaidi ili kuhakikisha ufuatiliaji kamili wa dawa zao. """ Kwa sababu ya vikwazo vyote vya uendeshaji na udhibiti kwenye minyororo ya usambazaji, ni muhimu kuunganisha teknolojia ya blockchain ili kukabiliana na changamoto hizi na kurudisha bidhaa zenye ubora na gharama nafuu kwenye soko. Blockchain ni jukwaa ambalo linaendeleza fursa za kuongeza uaminifu na uwazi na vitengo vyote vya biashara vinavyoweza kufuatilia bidhaa katika mlolongo mzima wa usambazaji. Kwa kutumia blockchain, vifurushi vya dawa vinaweza kuchunguzwa kupitia barcode wakati wowote katika mlolongo, na pia wakati wowote dawa zinabadilika umiliki. "Wateja wa kuaminika tu watapewa upatikanaji wa kuongeza habari kwenye blockchain, na shughuli zote zitaonyeshwa kwa wakati halisi, kinyume na masaa au hata siku za kusubiri na mifumo ya kawaida ya usambazaji wa mlolongo wa usambazaji. """ "Wanafunzi wote wanaohusika katika mchakato, kutoka kwa wazalishaji hadi wagonjwa na watumiaji, wataweza pia kuchunguza barcode na kuona ""njia kamili ya historia"" ya bidhaa." Jukwaa la blockchain linaloendelezwa linaweza kujumuisha utambulisho wa dawa, uthibitisho, na taarifa za papo hapo wakati dawa zisizo halali zinapatikana au marekebisho yasiyoidhinishwa yanafanywa katika mfumo. "Kama blockchain ni kikamilifu jumuishi katika mlolongo wa usambazaji, kila kitengo cha dawa itakuwa na maalum kitambulisho tag, kuruhusu kwa seamless uhamisho wa umiliki kupitia mtandao kuaminika na kuthibitishwa kwamba ni uwazi na salama kabisa, kutoka upstream wauzaji kwa downstream wagonjwa na watumiaji. """ Faida za jumla za blockchain ni kubwa, kutoka usalama wa data katika mlolongo wa usambazaji hadi kufuata sheria kamili katika tasnia nzima. Hata hivyo, kuunda kweli jumuishi, shughuli ya kimataifa si kazi rahisi hasa kwa kila kampuni ya dawa huko nje. Kampuni inayopenda blockchain lazima iwe na mipango ya kujisomea, kutathmini teknolojia, na kuchunguza ikiwa mfumo huo ni mali muhimu kwa bidhaa zao. Mkakati mpya unaanza kuendelezwa kwa blockchain katika tasnia ya dawa, kama vile mitandao ya wingu ambayo inaruhusu mwonekano wa mwisho-kwa-mwisho na ushirikiano kamili katika washirika wote wa mlolongo wa usambazaji. Mikakati mingine kuchanganya mawingu-msingi mitandao na maamuzi ya msaada maombi kwa kutumia kiasi kikubwa cha data katika mfumo. Mkakati huu wote mwishowe utaongeza ubora wa tasnia kwa kuunda upatikanaji wa juu wa bidhaa, hesabu ya chini, na faida ya juu. Kampuni nyingi za dawa tayari zimetumia baadhi ya mikakati hii yenye manufaa kujiweka mbele ya ushindani wao. Katika siku zijazo, blockchain itabadilisha sekta na hatimaye kuwa kipengele cha kawaida ndani ya kila shughuli kubwa ya dawa. Kwa sasa teknolojia ya blockchain inabadilika na kuunganishwa katika sekta hiyo hatua kwa hatua na kwa majibu makubwa, lakini bado inabaki kuonekana kama itaathiri usambazaji wa jumla kwa kiwango cha kimataifa. "Kila mtu anajua kwamba ulimwengu wa dawa unafanya kazi kwa kasi sana, na blockchain ni lazima kwa vizazi vijavyo. """ "Gunjan Bhardwaj, mwanzilishi na Mkurugenzi Mtendaji wa Innoplexus, ni kiongozi katika AI na uchambuzi kama huduma kwa viwanda vya sayansi ya maisha.""" Akiwa na historia katika Boston Consulting Group na Ernst & Young, yeye ni daraja kati ya ulimwengu wa AI, ushauri, na sayansi ya maisha ili kuendesha ubunifu.