After learning that pharma giant, Merck, has filed for a US patent for a blockchain-based system, GlobalData has been led to believe that the first applications of blockchain will be seen in the healthcare supply chain as an invaluable tool to combat counterfeit drugs.
Blockchain
Applications for blockchain within a healthcare setting have been explored by Merck since 2016, when Nishan Kulatilaka — associate director of product management and applied technology at the company — speculated that after financial services, healthcare could be the second largest industry to adopt the tech.
With its blockchain-based system, Merck claims that it can ensure its records are unchangeable and if employed to the supply chain can restrict potential opportunity for fraudulent activities.
According to the 2015 report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), counterfeit goods made up 2.5% of the global pharmaceutical trade in 2013 and global pharmaceutical sales reached $1.1 trillion in 2015. From these figures, the OECD calculated that the counterfeit pharma industry is worth about $200 billion annually, which comes in a fraction lower than the illicit drug trade at $246 billion.
“Beyond its potential use within supply chain security, blockchain is anticipated to provide a secure and convenient mechanism of data transfer between patients and healthcare providers,” commented Spencer Shaw, healthcare analyst at GlobalData. “Blockchain-based systems will begin to materialise in the healthcare industry in 2018. The primary obstacles to their implementation for data sharing within the healthcare industry are regulations concerning medical data and the prohibitive cost of setting up a common distributed network. For this reason, although in the long-term blockchain will revolutionise many aspects of healthcare on the patient level, the first applications of blockchain in healthcare will emerge in the supply chain, which is less resistant to change.”