Implementation of Pharmaceutical Drug Traceability Using Blockchain Technology

Abstract

The healthcare industry relies heavily on the use of pharmaceutical drugs to treat patients, and
acquires said drugs using supply chain management. However, fraud and abuse cases in current
healthcare industry are a major problem, costing the industry billions of dollars annually.
Furthermore, counterfeit drugs also plague the healthcare industry, which is a major health concern
to patients who consume said drugs. To solve these problems, a system is required to trace
pharmaceutical drugs as they travel the supply chain, from the provider of the ingredients to
produce pharmaceutical drugs, to its consumers. The proposed project will implement blockchain,
an emerging technology that enables decentralized storage of data and immutable data. Blockchain
stores data in a distributed ledger visible to all participants, which will create transparency in the
supply chain, a much-needed change, which are presently very complex and opaque. Blockchain
records the transaction details of relevant participants involved in the supply chain process as
pharmaceutical drugs move through the supply chain.