FarmaTrust: Blochain Propelled Enhancement of the Pharmaceutical Industry

In the Beginning,

Man's struggle to stay healthy or regain good health in times of ill health is as old as mankind itself. Most times, the experience of just some hours of a simple headache to a day of mild fever brings to fore the inherent disadvantages and discomfort found in ill health.
The ability to intelligently adapt to adverse situations through innovation and sometimes just natural selection has however been mankind's surviving prowess through the ages.

The evolution of human health maintenance techniques and substances has also evolved from the very primitive and now is at the technologically cutting edge. Methods like Trepanation which is also humanity's oldest form of surgery and probably its most gruesome were used in health maintenance. Trepanation involves the process of boring holes in the skull as a means of curing illnesses. A common theory as to why this grisly form of brain surgery even came to be, holds that it might have been a ritual method of removing evil spirits believed to exist in the sick and so allow for the curing of illnesses.

Bloodletting which involved the belief that sicknesses were as a result of a little "bad blood" was also used to "cure"sicknesses in the distant past. With the belief that the human body consists of four basic fluids namely blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm popularised by the then prominent physician Hippocrates in mind, patients with a little fever or any ailment at all were diagnosed with " over abundance of blood". Therefore, to restore bodily harmony and thus health, a doctor would simply cut open the patients vein and drain his blood. How absurdly dangerous!

A Change for the Better

Health maintenance techniques and drugs have however since transcended bloodletting and the boring of skulls of patients to enable disease causing evil spirits escape.
The advancement in medicine has been caused not just by changing ideas but also by changing practices and higher technological possibilities. Thus better and more efficient drugs have become a reality today.

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The Problems

The growth of the pharmaceutical industry however, very much predictably, has come with a very big challenge, the increase in production of counterfeit drugs which are undoubtedly, really harmful both to the industry and the individuals who ingest such drugs.

In Nigeria for example, the problem of the proliferation of fake drugs has deeply harmed the credibility of healthcare in Nigeria and most times has led to consumer illness, disability or even death. This is so because consumers do not know the quality of drugs they buy. According to this BBC article, the World Health Organisation has estimated that more than 120,000 people die yearly in Africa as a result of fake anti-malarial drugs alone. Nigeria being the largest market for such drugs. Nigeria's NAFDAC (National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control) has tried to combat the plague of fake drugs but to no avail.

Another big problem facing the pharmaceutical industry is capable supply chains for manufactured drugs.

Heroes may win battles, but it is capable supply chains that win wars against diseases. Not only do capable supply chains win wars against diseases but they are very much pivotal in winning battles against counterfeit drugs.
Pharma companies have to manage incredibly complex supply chains and manage the operational challenges of working and interacting with huge numbers of suppliers contributing ingredients and components to drug production.

The inefficiency of supply chain systems has however led to inflation of drug costs and much more disheartening, the proliferation of fake and counterfeit drugs. These problems facing the Pharmaceutical industry need to be solved as soon and efficiently as possible in order to prevent further loss of lives. Just when one thought all hope was lost, FarmaTrust through the blockchain has come to the rescue, our much needed 11th hour saviour.

The Saviour FarmaTrust

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What if something was done to make pharmaceutical supply chains more efficient and at the same, serve as an intelligent approach to solving the proliferation of fake and counterfeit drugs problem? FarmaTrust does exactly that something.

By improving the security of the supply chain of drugs from the manufacturer through the middlemen and to the last consumer, FarmaTrust aims to combat headlong the multi billion dollar problem of fake and counterfeit medicines.

FarmaTrust's Way

FarmaTrust automates the pharmaceutical supply chain such that at each stage of the supply process, immutable blockchain transactions which are generated by the FarmaTrust API, are created. This enables something which was pretty much difficult and cost billions of dollars, the tracing of a product through the supply chain, real time tracking of such a product's ownership and finally, product authentication.
Just imagine that with FarmaTrust's system, the next time you buy a drug in a store in Africa, all you have to do is scan and verify through the free FarmaTrust mobile app that such a product is genuine.

Now consider the number of lives that would be saved when most drugs that are counterfeit are discovered all thanks to FarmaTrust. Truly Awesome!

A diagram illustrating FarmaTrust's supply chain management
Source: FarmaTrust Whitepaper

The Zoi

To achieve its objectives, FarmaTrust has developed the Zoi Supply Chain Information Exchange platform based on the blockchain to track products through the entire supply chain and also very importantly too, provide traceability and information even to governments and agencies like Nigeria's NAFDAC. The Zoi platform has been designed to be very much scalable, that is, having the ability to process millions of transactions without ever being overloaded or allowing for the compromisation of security. FTT tokens issued by FarmaTrust however would be the publicly tradable digital assets that would allow users who would range from pharma industries, governments and agencies to access and use the Zoi platform. FTT token holders can therefore stake their FTT tokens to receive Zoi tokens which would be used for transactions on the Zoi platform also allowing them access to the so much information generated on the platform.

A New Dawn

True to its belief, much more than creating efficiencies in the pharmaceutical supply chain, FarmaTrust is going to save lives by ensuring counterfeit drugs stay out of the supply chain, forever.

With FarmaTrust, these mothers would no longer mourn and protest in the future for the death of their babies as a result of fake drugs.

With FarmaTrust, such drug mafians as described here would really have a hard time controlling and coordinating the sale of counterfeit drugs to hospitals.

FarmaTrust would provide a very cost effective approach to pharmaceutical industries in meeting tracking standards, at the same time enabling a robust and scalable system for supply chain industries.

Governments and agencies too would be provided with real time information about drugs in transit and the consumer provided with the technology to confirm genuineness of products, cost-free.

FarmaTrust's partnership with Gaco Pharmaceuticals based in Bangladesh goes to show a great revolution, is very much still brewing.

A new dawn in the problem plagued pharmaceutical industry is truly here.
FarmaTrust at the helm, creating trust in pharmaceuticals once again,making efficient the pharma supply chain and most importantly, saving lives.

Farma2018

FarmaTrust's ICO presale restarts on the 1st of June, 2018. For more information, check out this video;

More information sources:

• FarmaTrust Website
• FarmaTrust Whitepaper>

This article was written for this Originalworks sponsored contest