Survey on Drug Supply Chain Using Blockchain Technology

Abstract

It is quite challenging to have an effective supply chain management in every industry. However, it is more challenging and at the same time risky to develop a supply chain in Healthcare as a compromised supply chain can put the patient’s life on risk. The Healthcare industry faces problems such as lack of transparency, difficulty in tracking the products, shipments of expired products, lack of trust, lack of safety and security and many more such problems. With the help of Blockchain Technology many of these problems are solved. The rising awareness of Drug safety has created the need to improve the traceability and transparency in the supply chain. Drug counterfeit can also be prevented by using an effective, traceable and transparent supply chain with the support of Blockchain Technology.

Introduction

I. INTRODUCTION

Drug safety is one of the most important need now-a-days as it directly affects the public’s health. Many researchers have claimed, to guarantee the drug safety the best solution is to build a reliable drug traceability system ranging from drug production, logistics to sales. This transparent and traceable drug supply chain can be achieved with the help of Blockchain Technology.

A. Blockchain

It is a decentralized, immutable, distributed ledger that stores and shares all the transactions that occurs within the blockchain network. It is a peer-to-peer network architecture. Key elements of Blockchain are Distributed ledger technology, Immutable records, Smart contracts.

 II. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE

The diagram in figure 2 gives a quick overview of the working of Drug Supply Chain using Blockchain Technology.

The System works as follow:

1. Suppliers: Suppliers supply the raw materials that are required for the manufacturing of medicines to the manufacturer/ Producer.
2. Producer: Producer is responsible to manufacture new medicines and supply them to Distributors.
3. Distributor: Distributors take the medicines from Producer in bulk and delivers it to the next participant of the Supply Chain.
4. 3PL: 3PL are the Third-Party Logistics. They are responsible for shipping packages/consignment form one stage to other.
5. Retailer: Retailers stock inventory and sell in smaller quantities to customers in the general public.
6. Customer: Customers are individuals or organizations that purchase and use a product manufactured by the Producer.

III. LITERATURE SURVEY

IV. SUMMARY

Blockchain technology has a great positive effect on the Supply chain Management. Problems with traditional supply chain can be tackled with blockchain. End-to-end traceability of health products, reduced losses related to counterfeiting, transparency to enhance accountability, efficient recall management are some of the advantages that can be achieved with traceable and transparent supply chain system. We studied six papers and listed their strength and weakness and accordingly planned to develop a Blockchain based web application for Drug Supply Chain.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2023 Pranali Pawar, Ramani Vaidya, Vrushali Terekar, S. D. Dighe. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.