Companies in US Drug Supply Chain Unveil Pilot Project to Track Counterfeit Medicines

Several companies, including Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Sanofi, Novo Nordisk, Amgen and Gilead Sciences, have created a blockchain-based platform to track prescription products across the supply chain in an effort to better stem the flow of counterfeit medicines, according to FirstWord. The working group, which encompasses 24 drugmakers, distributors, retailers and delivery firms, said Friday that a final report on the pilot project has been submitted to the FDA detailing how blockchain technology, like the MediLedger Network, can serve as an “interoperable track-and-trace system” for US prescription drugs.

“The current point-to-point systems infrastructure lacks the ability to keep data in sync across the healthcare supply chain, which ultimately increases the risk of counterfeit, diverted or otherwise illegitimate products,” commented David Vershure, head of channel and contract management for Roche’s Genentech unit. “The pilot serves as a key milestone in demonstrating that blockchain technology is a viable option to address the complexity of building an interoperable system,” he added.

The MediLedger Network was developed in response to a call put out by the FDA early last year for pilot projects testing an electronic interoperable system that would be able to identify and trace certain prescription drugs as they are distributed in the US. According to the working group, MediLedger was selected “due to its existing and growing adoption within the industry.” The blockchain-based network is already in commercial use for the verification of saleable drug returns and will expand this year “to include a solution to the contracting and chargebacks process in the pharmaceutical supply chain,” it added.

Susanne Somerville, CEO at technology company Chronicled, which is the custodian of MediLedger providing administration of the network, said “even though the drug supply in the US is safe, there are small percentages…of potential counterfeit drugs. Certainly, there’s a lot of evidence of diverted drugs.” She noted counterfeit drugs are a major problem in the developing world, however, where it is estimated that half of their prescription medicines are counterfeit, and “this is a plan intended that this never happens in this country.”