NEW YORK (Reuters) – Some of the industry’s largest pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) and Eli Lilly and Co (LLY.N), have developed a blockchain-based system to track prescription drugs across the supply chain to better halt the flow of counterfeit medicines, company officials said on Friday.
FILE PHOTO: The Pfizer logo is seen at their world headquarters in Manhattan, New York, U.S., August 1, 2016. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
Some two dozen companies in the industry including drugmakers, distributors, retailers and delivery firms created the blockchain-based MediLedger Network, which it has been testing in the verification of drug returns. They said they intend to further expand the system this year.
Blockchain, which first emerged as the technology underlying virtual currency bitcoin, is a shared database maintained by a network of computers.
The MediLedger group submitted a report to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration laying out the benefits of blockchain for…
Source Reuters Tech News
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