The distributed ledger technology as a measure to minimize risks of poor-quality pharmaceuticals circulation

BACKGROUND: In the modern world, millions of people suffer from fake and poor-quality medical products entering the market. Violation of the rules of transportation of drugs makes them ineffective and even dangerous. The relationship between the various parts of the supply chain, production and regulation of drugs is too hard and has many problems. Distributed ledger technology is a distributed database, the properties of which allow us to track the entire path of medical products from the manufacturer to consumer, to improve the current model of the supply chain, to transform the pharmaceutical industry and prevent falsified drugs reach the market. OBJECTIVE: The aim of the article is to analyze the distributed ledger technology as an innovative means of poor-quality pharmaceuticals prevention to reach the market as well as their forehanded detection. METHODS: Content analysis of web sites of companies developing distributed ledger technology solutions had been performed. Five examples found with a google search engine by keywords “distributed ledger technology”, “blockchain”, “pharmaceuticals” and “supply chain” were examined. Analysis of relative scientific publications had been made. With the help of generalization and systematization methods, services provided by these companies were analyzed. The visual model of the supply chain was created with Microsoft Visio software. RESULTS: The analysis results contain a principle scheme of distributed ledger technology implementation to achieve the objectives. The analysis of present-day pharmaceuticals supply chain structure and the distributed ledger technology capacities to improve pharmaceutical companies has been carried out and presented. Furthermore, the article allows getting acquainted with today’s projects released to the market as well as the prognosis of the distributed ledger technology in pharmaceutical industry enhancement in the future.