Meet FarmaTrust: improving the safety and efficiency of the pharmaceutical industry by leveraging modern technology
Introduction
Throughout our lives we have all heard horror stories about people buying medicines only to find out later on that the medicine they bought ended up being a counterfeit, and instead of getting better regarding the health issue, the person gets worse and worse. While it is true that in some countries there are effective agencies whose work is to make sure fake medicines don’t reach the market, sadly this is not the case in every country.
There are places, especially under developed countries, where it is common to find counterfeit medicines selling openly like if they weren’t illegal, and even more sad is the fact that a lot of people innocently become victims of the deceptive organizations that are behind this illegal industry.
Some of the most important risks of counterfeit medicines are the following:
- contain a different quantity of the original active ingredient
- contain totally different active ingredients
- contain toxic ingredients
- bear forged manufacturer's data on the packaging
- have been completely repackaged
- have been produced under conditions that do not conform with current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP)
- have not been transported and stored properly. | Source
Besides, counterfeit medicines can potentially affect the reputation of well established companies, by selling defective products with their name and logo on it.
Luckily for everyone of us, the technology of today offers us innovative tools that can help take prevention measures even further, and even empower the final consumer with a new level of protection when the moment comes to buy new medicines.
Enter FarmaTrust
FarmaTrust is a company that offers the possibility of integrating a tracking system for medicines with the help of blockchain technology, as well as increase the efficiency in how said medicines are distributed by applying artificial intelligence that will help identifying certain patterns regarding distribution routes and required supplies, in order to take better and faster decisions.
Let’s start first with the tracking system. - While using blockchain technology every bit of information stored in the blockchain remains stored forever, protected from attacks and any kind of manipulation. When it comes to the supply chain, this technology has important benefits because storing the information regarding how the products were manufactured can offer a bullet proof way to avoid fake medicines to be registered as real ones, the transactions already registered cannot be changed and anything that is counterfeit would not be able to be identified as authentic because there wouldn’t be any previous operation, transaction nor record backing that authenticity. This is why blockchain technology when applied to the pharmaceutical supply chain could end up being the last nail in the coffin for the counterfeit industry.
FarmaTrust with its Zoi Supply Chain Information Exchange platform can offer exactly that, and for easier deployment it can be integrated with already existing supply chain management systems in manufacturers, hospitals, pharmacies and every entity that takes part in the distribution of medicines, facilitating the creation of a global network capable of providing information about the legitimacy of all sort of medicines to its different users, including of course, the final consumer.
The tokens briefly explained
The way FarmaTrust works is by using tokens in a very innovative yet simply to understand way. FarmaTrust first issues FTT tokens which are regular ERC20 tokens and because of that they can be traded openly and freely, when 100 FTT tokens are staked in the platform it triggers the creation of 500 weekly ZOI tokens that can only be used or traded in the already mentioned Zoi Supply Chain Information Exchange platform and they are the ones that allow the users to access every bit of information stored in this platform about all sort of medicines in order to confirm the legitimacy of said medicines. This way, each ZOI token gets “burned” after being used. The last token that is also used on this platform is the “Compliance Tracking Token” that are created the same way as the ZOI token, by staking FTT tokens and creating a Smart Bond “that binds the FTT tokens to a new batch of Serialized Product Keys” Source, only that in this opportunity, the goal for the issued token is to act as a “digital reference of a Serialized Product Key on its own blockchain” Source, and once the product packet that is being tracked by this token is sold or returned, the token is consumed as well, and the stacked FTT tokens are released.
Since this platform can be implemented with ease in every step of the supply chain, it is able to offer absolute traceability at a scale never seen before, across different supply chain management systems, and obviously across different borders, this is why it is capable of reaching every country on the planet and improve their current ways of handling the distribution of medicines while making it close to impossible for a fake medicine to be included.
And when it comes to the final consumer buying the medicines, FarmaTrust will offer a free smartphone application in which the person can scan a code that will be on the medicine, and using the app to check if its legitimacy can be proved by the data that was stored in the blockchain, which can be considered as a new layer of protection for the consumers of this sector that didn’t existed before.
Improving the distribution and other benefits
Another feature that will be offered by FarmaTrust comes in the form of increasing the efficiency with the distribution. It does so by figuring out which ones are the best routes to take in order to properly cover the market and the demand for the product, this is possible through the use of Artificial Intelligence, besides, in order to reduce even further the costs associated with typical supply chains, it can automate common processes such as the creation of regulatory reports adapted to the country in question.
There are more economic benefits for organizations that decide to adopt this platform, for example if the medicines aren’t properly distributed, there will be losses with the ones that don’t sell before its expiration date, which is caused by a simple distribution problem, if those medicines were instead distributed in places where the demand was higher, they would end up being sold instead of reaching its expiration date without finding a consumer. This platform fixes this issue since it will be able to inform the user when the expiration date starts to get dangerously close, and this way actions can be taken to send the medicine to a place where it is needed and prevent it from getting spoiled before being consumed.
Defining which is a good distribution is even easier since information about what product has been sold, when and where, are included in the platform. With this information along with the already mentioned Artificial Intelligence, establishing the best distribution routes will be something that is made almost instantly.
Conclusion
When taking into account everything that FarmaTrust can offer, we can conclude that we are on the verge of a world in which people could be able to have safer medicines all over the world by excluding on a more effective way any kind of counterfeit, there will be more efficiency when it comes to distributing the medicines and determining the best way to cover the market according to its demand, a system that informs the user when the expiration date is coming so the medicine is not wasted, and we will also have a new layer of protection to the final consumer when acquiring new medicine in order to protect him against fake ones, everyone involved would enjoy benefits one way or another, and this is happening thanks to the convergence of innovative ideas only possible by leveraging blockchain technology and implementing everything on a platform capable of working with various systems so the deployment doesn't turn into something problematic.
Since under this platform every single interaction there is with our medicines happens with the safety of a blockchain supporting the correspondent veracity, it would make people that are use to being surrounded by fake medicines to gain a new level of mental peace when they get sick. I can only imagine the intense stress a person must feel when he is not only sick, but also not being sure if the medicine he is buying is an authentic one, nevertheless, by adopting FarmaTrust's platform issues like this will get resolved easily.
If you want to know more about this company, I invite you to visit their website.
If you want to know more about how this blockchain project works, please feel free to check their whitepaper.
For some explanatory videos, please visit their youtube channel.
If you want to read official and informative articles about this project, you can find those here.
And if you want to ask me any question about this project, feel free to leave a comment below.
References
Images sources
All images are property of FarmaTrust.io and are used with their permission, expressed in the contest's post under the subtitle “Rules & Submission”.
This is my entry for the @originalworks contest that can be found here
farma2018
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Counterfeit Medicine can really be a big threat to a nation.
I heard abt manipulation of drugs to spread diseases among general people of a county. This conspiracy is backed by a huge amount of profit in counterfeit medicine..!
Its really good to know that someone is fighting against this..!
Most of the people of a country dont bother to check the origin, process of making or sources of a medicine. They usually blindly beleive what they r provided by the pharmaceuticals. So there must be a monitoring authority in every country who will work to keep this industry free of counterfeit medicines...!
Best regards to FarmaTrust..!
Yeah, the industry of fake products in general, and fake medicines in particular is huge and hard to fight in some countries, with tools like the one shared here, it should be easier to resolve this life threatening problem.
yes..! wishing this initiative a great success..!! 🙌
This is a fantastic idea, it takes a lot of pressure off of pharmacy workers too, everyone is prone to make a mistake once in a while, and the main thing should be safety, not blame
Agree! It will help a lot of people, including of course those workers!
Great post! I also took part in this contest, you definitely have a better grasp on the tech than I do, very nicely explained. Good luck!
Thank you mate, good luck!
Amazing. So, our drugs can now be tracked, as well as their distribution channels and target market. This is surely a big plus for technology, because indeed lives have been lost due to fake and counterfeit drug distribution. Thanks for sharing @dedicatedguy. And good luck in the contest.
The tracking will get improved thanks to the application of blockchain technology across all the supply chain. And, yes, everyone will end up winning, even some lives saved, which is great!
This is actually very nice! Here in Africa, several people die at the hands of fake medicines daily and are not stopping yet. This would really ease this situation...How accessible it would be to this less privilege is my concern though
Nice input sire
Accessible? well, for the final consumer it would be easy to confirm if the medicine is real or fake using the app.
The important thing would be to deploy the platform in the supply chains of African countries, which should be a priority because as you said, those countries are the most affected by the fake drugs industry.
Maybe I misused a word. I was meant to say hope it'd get deployed to Africa where such occurrence is high as you said.
It'd really save lives.