FDA, IBM and Merck will inject the blockchain into drug supply chains.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has entered into a partnership agreement with four companies to use the blockchain in the drug supply chain.

According to ZDNet, the FDA has teamed up with IBM, Walmart, KPMG and Merck to create proof of the concept of using the blockchain to exchange and track data on the distribution of prescription drugs.

According to the report, this initiative is linked to the United States Drug Supply Chain Safety Act (DSCSA) and is intended to help the FDA, as well as other pharmaceutical organizations, optimize the pharmaceutical supply chain. In particular, project participants seek to speed up the inventory tracking process, as well as ensure the accuracy of the data exchanged between supply chain participants.

Mark Treshock, IBM’s blockchain solutions leader in healthcare and biomedical research, stressed that the blockchain not only provides an effective basis for tracking pharmaceutical products in the supply chain, but also allows you to track connections between network participants without revealing the data itself.

The FDA announced for the first time its plans to use blockchain to increase the efficiency of drug supply chains in February 2019, expecting to launch the platform by 2023. In addition, back in 2017 it became known about the cooperation of IBM Watson and the FDA, in which organizations agreed to secure medical data with the help of the blockchain. In November last year, information also appeared that the FDA would introduce a blockchain to track food supply chains.

Earlier this year, the pharmacological giant Merck, a member of the FDA project, received a patent for a blockchain system to verify the authenticity of drugs.
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