What is Farmatrust: The industry problems and solutions.

It is estimated that the pharmaceutical industry is valued at a whopping a US$1 trillion industry, and generates some of the highest profits among all the commercial sectors. It is not without its flaws. According to the FarmaTrust team, it is currently struggling with numerous challenges as a result of criminal enterprises, ineffective stock control and lack of visibility of its supply chain.

The FarmaTrust team further adds that such dynamics affect the most vulnerable members of society – sick people fighting against cancer, HIV, malaria, and other life-threatening diseases. Blockchain technology has the potential to fundamentally transform this industry, and will significantly help address these challenges.

Listed in their whitepaper are 5 key problems that the pharma industry currently faces –

The proliferation of Counterfeit Drugs: Fake drugs result in the death of hundreds of thousands of individuals each year. As shown in this paper, organized crime has infiltrated the pharmaceutical supply chain because of high profits and lenient sentencing.

The increase of Online/Digital Prescriptions: The increase in online purchases and the growing acceptability of “virtual prescriptions” have made it far easier for counterfeiters to set up fake online pharmacies, with law enforcement agencies struggling to permanently shut them down.

The Regulatory Environment: As threats to pharmaceutical company profitability are increasing, the regulatory burden is increasing as well, and the patent cliff is becoming more dangerous: The most profitable drugs will soon be produced by lower margin generic producers. Such dynamics affect the most vulnerable members of society – sick people fighting against cancer, HIV, malaria and other life-threatening diseases.

Chain Inefficiencies: Such inefficiencies distort the price of medicines as well as reduce the R&D budgets of many pharmaceutical companies. The inefficient supply chain also means there are shortages in some countries and oversupply in others.

Growing demand for ‘personalized’ medicines: The growing demand for ‘personalized’ medicines requires a secure, transparent and permission-less solution which is accepted globally.

What are ‘blockchains’?

The definition of blockchains is “a database or ledger that maintains a growing list of data records or transactions from different parties.” Essentially, its an electronic peer to peer, distributed ledger which is maintained by “miners” ensuring the transaction records are immutable.

Blockchains are shared publicly, with every transaction entry (a block) stored and recorded for anyone to see.

Blockchains are decentralized, with no central authority required to approve any transactions or set any new rules.

Because every single transaction is recorded, and every blockchain transaction is an immutable and irreversible record, blockchains are highly secure. Blockchains are also fully automated, so that double transactions or conflicting information is never written into the chain, and thus they are highly trustworthy.

In short, blockchain technology is an excellent solution to counterfeit medications, and that’s why FarmaTrust is now using blockchain technology, coupled with artificial intelligence (AI), to combat the counterfeit drug trade and save lives, all over the planet.

In fact, FarmaTrust goes one step further, using an Ethereum based blockchain platform that’s compatible with any other platform and, as with all blockchain technology, is secure, encrypted and immutable (i.e. fixed and/or permanent).

Using blockchain and AI technology, FarmaTrust is set to revolutionize the medication delivery process from manufacturers to doctor to patient, allowing global cooperation between drug manufacturers by using ‘big data’ to track medications from factory to end-patient, and making certain that the medications being taken by patients are actual medications and not counterfeit.

Here are some comprehensive, secure solutions;

Using blockchains allows FarmaTrust to deliver a comprehensive solution to this global problem. With blockchains there is ‘real time’ reporting of all transactions from start to finish. Data collection is significantly increased, showing the entire supply-chain and allowing, for example, law enforcement agencies to quickly and easily track genuine medications and thus more easily detect medications that are fake.

This also allows end-users, the patients in desperate need of these medications, to authenticate that the medication they’re taking is genuine by scanning them with a QR code or via sms text messaging.

By creating this solution, FarmaTrust is also helping to increase or protect the margins for pharmaceutical companies (and allow them to invest in more research) while also greatly increasing the confidence of medical personnel, pharmacists and patients across the globe.

"Our solution has a number of significant benefits, including the fact that no new hardware or software is needed in order to begin implementation. The FarmaTrust blockchain solution is also scalable on a global basis, ultra-resilient with virtually no down-time, and can provide automated regulatory reporting if necessary" as said by the CEO of the industry.

The FarmaTrust solution will thus eliminate counterfeit medications, allow doctors and patients to purchase the genuine article and, over time, save thousands of lives that are now being lost due to fake (and oftentimes dangerous) drugs.

Counterfeit medications are a massive global problem that’s getting worse by the day. At FarmaTrust we’re doing our part to eradicate this epidemic of fake drugs, putting control back in the hands of the doctors and patients and, in the process, saving countless lives.
Farma 2018