The Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Is Ready For Blockchain

In pharmaceuticals and the life sciences sector, the most valuable commodity is trust. When a patient pops a pill, he is putting his life on the hands of the prescribing doctor and the drug company that developed the pill alongside the supply chain that delivered it to him. Now in drug production and supply, these problems are thankfully rare. Although the consequences of failure could be more significant for the pharmaceutical company in terms of reputation, you can only trust that the supply chain is always watertight, which hasn’t always been the case. Earlier in the summer, there were reports of a criminal gang in Italy stealing unsafe medicine and selling them in UK pharmacies. Although the drugs were not counterfeit, they had been outside the regulated supply chain for long and had been classified as falsified. The industry is well aware of its responsibilities to patients and is quick to take steps to address the existing issues that put people’s safety at risk. For instance the Chicago Tylenol murders back in 1980, which provides a good example. The industry was quick enough to develop tamper-resistant packaging, although Johnson & Johnson ought to be commended for how they handled the crisis.