Counterfeit drugs in the supply chain of proliferation is a matter of serious concern. Litigation, brand damage and more serious related events may occur. This problem makes the pharmaceutical companies need to find ways to gradually offset the differences found in the entire supply chain. As these companies hope to improve the safety of multiple contact points, many companies rely on technology to track, a possible solution has the natural ability to track stand out: block chain. However, the block chain is still in its infancy, the implementation of new technologies for many pharmaceutical companies current digital infrastructure poses a challenge.
Time supervision counterfeit goods
with the continuous progress of counterfeit products, counterfeit products and the difference between counterfeit products has become increasingly difficult. In general, expired products will be repackaged and the false date dosage information. Just check the packaging and the corresponding label has been insufficient to verify the authenticity of the product, especially since these products for re-packaging machines are often as complex as the original machine used by the manufacturer. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies (manufacturers and many other industries) are turning their attention to block chain, as a possible solution to create easy to track the trajectory of verification.
Successful implementation of the block chain solutions product information can be stored on each transaction verification and supply chain security to prevent random drug into the system. However, the practical application is still in the conceptual phase. Although this technique may prove to be a viable method for tracking products, but pharmaceutical companies may be reluctant to implement, because the product information is widely available to anyone in the supply chain can enter the network. However, as long as advances in technology and processes can mitigate these concerns, blocking the chain can still be a viable solution to help combat the growing epidemic of counterfeit medicines. At the same time, pharmaceutical companies are exploring other ways to prevent counterfeiting, including the use of hidden labels, bar codes or entrance with rfid technology, these checks when entering the production facility. This helps the company to verify the authenticity of after-market products.
In 2013, the US Federal Drug Administration (fda) announced the "Drug Supply Chain Security Act" (dscsa), in order to enhance the impact serialized. In order to meet the new requirements fda, many companies began pilot testing, using the camera to track packages with a traceability code inline. However, the company is not difficult to create a system of established industry standards to follow. To solve this problem, fda will continue its efforts to implement other dscsa legislation, as an additional sequence of the guidelines, but verification may take months or even years, resulting solutions may not be easy to verify the authenticity of the product.
Balance all the factors
operating companies can be considered fake counterfeit serialized and non-serialized. The method comprises a sequence of non-pharmaceutically or packaging difficult to counterfeit mark to verify product. dscsa demand for counterfeit products serialization. According to the instructions of the law, since November 2017, all cases homogeneous drug should be serialized, and in accordance with standardized guidelines for digital identification of fda. This is still legal, but the implementation has been delayed. The Act also requires merchants to accept serial medicines only until November 2019, pharmacies in 2020 to accept only serial drugs. These requirements will be strictly enforced within what time frame remains to be seen. October 2018 of gs1 assessment found that only 20% of the drugs in full compliance with standards.
Dscsa accelerate through
attractive block chain is to build a trusted network cloud-based environment, it is almost impossible to black. Many companies in the pursuit of higher levels of the supply chain security are working hard to meet this standard. In fact, only 15% of European manufacturers report that they will be able to complete counterfeit medicines in the EU Directive 2017 [1] defines the appropriate serializer. Some companies to solve this problem by developing a special internal system to combat counterfeiters. However, since these systems rely on password input data, they are still vulnerable to hacker attacks.
Although the block chain is still in its infancy, but its potential to improve the serialization has not been ignored. In the process of implementation of the dscsa, fda has begun to call for the use of block chain technology http://www.gendan5.com/digitalcurrency/btc.html implementation of pilot projects. This may lead to the implementation of block chain in the next five years. 2023, block chain technology may no longer be a theoretical reference the pharmaceutical industry, but with reference to the true sense. Meanwhile, suppliers of printing and labeling solutions always ready, willing and able to help implement block chain to promote safe drug supply chain.
Although the block chain may ultimately provide a solution for establishing a secure traceability procedures for pharmaceutical companies, but many other companies are using the technology is much more mature proven serialization and traceability. Further, the search data structure of a block chain speed is very slow. Using block chain traceability will need a shadow database search optimization or when a specific sequence found hosting unit chain when needed. Indeed, the user will need to block chains combined with many other technologies, to achieve the desired results. Block chain does provide a strong "invariant", which means that once data is written, it can never be changed. This provides a very reliable audit trail that can help curb fraud in the supply chain.