Blockchain-based solution for secure and transparent pharmaceutical supply chain management using drugledger

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Pharmacology
• Supply Chain Management

Background:

• The pharmaceutical supply chain faces critical issues like counterfeit drugs, poor traceability, and lack of transparency.
• These challenges compromise patient safety and trust in the global medicine distribution network.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel blockchain and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS)-based framework for enhanced pharmaceutical product traceability.
• To improve the security, transparency, and verifiability of pharmaceutical products throughout the supply chain.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a prototype system using blockchain technology (Ethereum-compatible environments) and IPFS for decentralized storage.
• Integration of role-based smart contracts for managing access and operations within the supply chain.
• Validation through workflow measurements in Remix VM and deployment on the Sepolia public testnet.

Main Results:

• The system successfully demonstrated end-to-end traceability, including participant registration, product enrollment, manufacturing, ownership transfers, and authenticity verification.
• Consistent gas consumption was observed for core operations, providing predictable computational costs.
• The framework proved viable at the prototype level for secure tracking and verification.

Conclusions:

• The proposed blockchain and IPFS framework offers a promising solution for enhancing pharmaceutical supply chain traceability and combating counterfeit medicines.
• Further research is necessary to evaluate scalability, latency, and performance under real-world, large-scale operational conditions.