When it comes to getting medication from the manufacturer to the physicians and patients, Africa is facing a severe problem with counterfeit drugs.
For costs associated with the use of counterfeit medicines, individuals, families, and health systems are staggering.
Every year more than 122,000 African children under the age of five lose their lives as a result of counterfeit antimalarials alone.
What if we could track, trace, and authenticate the drugs at each stage of their journey from the pharma company all the way to the patient?
That's exactly what researchers at the IBM Lab in Haifa, Israel are doing.
We're using blockchain technology to introduce traceability and trackability into the supply chain.
Using blockchain, we can make sure there's a verifiable provenance of what is delivered, by whom, to whom, when, and where.
Within the pharma supply chain, we're setting up a trusted network that allows the different parties to store information,
knowing that only authorized members can see it, and the information can't be altered once it's been entered.
Specifically for pharmaceutical orders, we can verify that the authentic drugs are handed over to an authorized party at each transfer point,
ensure compliance with the proper conditions for transportation and asset transfer,
and we can also make sure that a joint verified ledger of all transactions is available at all times.
This means provenance of each and every drug in the supply chain.
Any party in the network can see the status of where the drugs are and who has them.
This solution from IBM research includes the mobile interface and the permission blockchain backend that gives each certified and authorized party in the network
a way to initiate action, finish their transaction, track its progress and verify that it was done correctly.
Let's look at an example of how this would work.
This is Dr. Msia. She needs tuberculosis vaccines for her patients.
Dr. Msia already checked the prices at the local pharmacies and decided to order from ABC Pharma.
She knows that if she arranges delivery from the pharmacy using blockchain, she'll have more confidence that the drugs are authentic and also get a better price.
At ABC Pharma in Kenya, Imani received an order from Dr. Msia in Koru asking for three BCG ampoules.
The order is registered in the blockchain.
Imani prepares the delivery for Dr. Msia in Koru and scans the QR codes and serial numbers of the vaccines for the blockchain.
The order is ready to go and the next step involves selecting the delivery carrier.
From the list of possible carriers available in the blockchain system, Imani selects Solomon who has a good reputation score and is not overloaded with orders today.
Solomon is motivated to supply a high quality service, because his reputation score is calculated based on the ratings he receives.
This reputation score helps him get more business from other hospitals and clinics.
He heads to ABC Pharma where he meets Imani.
When he arrives, Solomon authenticates to the blockchain system.
Imani initializes the delivery transfer.
And then Solomon checks the serial numbers of the vaccines and accepts the delivery.
All this is recorded and the transaction is appended to the blockchain ledger after verifying that both Imani and Solomon are physically at the ABC Pharma premises.
Solomon heads out. The BCG vaccines are stored in a refrigerated box equipped with temperature sensors.
The sensors sent a reading every 60 seconds and any alarms are saved in the blockchain.
Solomon arrives in Koru and heads to Dr. Msia's clinic.
Dr. Msia greets Solomon and they both examine the delivery.
Dr. Msia received an SMS earlier with the tracking code. Together they authenticate using the blockchain.
Dr. Msia verifies the tracking code number of the delivery and scans in and verifies the vaccines using a QR code scanner.
She also verifies via blockchain that there were no alerts regarding the temperature during transport.
Dr. Msia accepts the delivery.
Solomon accepts the delivery transfer.
And the transfer is appended to the blockchain, which now shows the vaccines at the Koru location.
Solomon's reputation score and number of open deliveries are updated.
And Dr. Msia can continue keeping her patients healthy.
Back at ABC Pharma, Imani examines the status of today's blockchain transactions.
Happily, all went well with the transfer to Dr. Msia.
This innovative blockchain solution from IBM research offers new benefits.
It reduces the loss from counterfeit drugs, offers shorter lead times of cycles from pharma to patient, and introduces a non-repudiation process with provenance and trackability for fast resolution of any conflicts.