Fake Drugs and Block Chain technology

Why in news?

Recently the drug regulator of Rajasthan found certain medicines to be fake which is a part of the counterfeit drugs industry in the country.

What are the problems that arise due to Fake drugs?

• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 35 % of the fake drugs sold globally come from India.
• In low and middle income countries like India, one in 10 medical products (pills, vaccines, injectables) in circulation are either substandard or fake.
• The substandard or fake drugs promote anti-microbial resistance in people.
• Spurious drugs make pharma companies incur huge revenue losses.
• According to industry body Assocham, in 2015, the value of the counterfeit drug industry in India was pegged at around Rs 150 billion
• It was almost 25 % of the total worth of the global pharma industry.

What are the ways to check the fake drugs?

• So far the efforts to combat the proliferation of fake drugs have been through traditional means — via tip-offs and surprise raids.
• The current methods of weeding out counterfeit drugs are quite archaic.
• Still the method of sampling is only used to verify the genuineness of drugs.

What is the latest development?

• Niti Aayog, in collaboration with Oracle Technologies and Apollo Hospitals, is working on a technology.
• The technology will leverage blockchain technology to overcome the counterfeit drug problem.
• Oracle is developing the app through which the consumer will be able to scan the bar code of a medicine
• By scanning we will know about its manufacturer, the date of production, its path of transport and the date it reached the retailer.
• Hence, the consumer can check if the medicine is genuine or not before buying it.
• The technology will work all long the entire supply chain so as to ensure that no fake drugs enter the system.

How does it work?

• The tracing and tracking of pharmaceutical products is done with the help of new age technologies like blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT).
• Fake drugs enter into the supply chain as Pharma sector is heavily dependent on logistics.
• Consignments of drugs will be tracked remotely through the use of IoT to check the entry of fake drugs.
• The data captured through IoT will be sent to the cloud server that will then be entered into the block chain ledger.
• The block chain digital ledger system records the transactions and tracking of consignments.
• It becomes easy for all stakeholders -drug manufacturers, controllers and hospitals to monitor the ledger.
• This eliminates the possibility of mixing fake drugs with original drugs.
• In addition block chain process is hack proof because it does not use a centralized system to store data.
• Any revision on the chain requires retrograde action on all associated blocks.
• This process allows users to see transactions in real time.
• The real time monitoring of data across the pharmaceutical supply chain will act as a third eye on fake drug dealers.

What are the other initiatives in this regard?

• Gujarat has implemented an online drug SMS alert system for retailers for ‘unsafe’ drugs.
• The state drug control authority worked with National Informatics Centre to develop the software.
• Abbott has introduced an SMS authentication scheme for customers.
• QR codes are also used to store product information on packs which will do away with the need to print leaflets.
• These QR codes can be an effective tracking mechanism.
• It allows the manufacturer to keep tabs on the drug’s circulation in the market.
• Companies are also planning to print a hologram on the packaging and mirco-emboss the product name on cartons.

What is the way forward?

• As block chain technology evolves, India’s efforts to root out counterfeit drugs will definitely make headway.
• It will surely lead to a much safer public health system in the country.

Source: Business standard