Blockchain technology in the pharmaceutical supply chain: Researching a business model based on Hyperledger Fabric

Abstract

Pharmaceutical companies that manufacture, ship and supply products face difficulties in tracking their products, allowing counterfeiters to inject counterfeit drugs into the system. This situation is observed, in particular, in the Russian market of turnover of pharmaceutical products, although the problem has long been global. The ability of blockchain systems to pinpoint the origin of data makes them particularly suitable for pharmaceutical supply chain applications. The data stored in the blockchain distributed register on the identification of drugs produced by the plant, as well as records of their movements throughout the supply chain, can accurately determine the authenticity of pharmaceutical products lying on the shelves of pharmacies. The development and implementation of such a system can be a big step towards winning the exhausting fight against the easy availability of counterfeit drugs and medical products. In the first part of this work, the main characteristics and features of the functioning of blockchain systems will be studied. In the second and final part, the designed concept of the pharmaceutical turnover control system based on the blockchain technology Hyperledger Fabric using the Hyperledger Composer development environment will be investigated.