Blockchain in Covid: How its Benefitting the Pharmaceutical & Logistics Company

1. Blockchain in COVID -19 - How is it Benefitting the Pharmaceutical and Logistics Companies? Source It was December 2019 when the novel coronavirus pandemic hit the globe by its storm. All the nations worldwide were eyeing the pharmaceutical industry for a vaccine that will combat the virus. To a surprise, developed nations and some developing countries like India, made this possible within a year by developing their own vaccine to address the novel coronavirus. While some have vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, others have Covishield, Covaxin, and Sputnik. News of the vaccine trials brought a sigh of relief to billions of people worldwide, but many were also concerned about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. The general manager of blockchain services from Blockchain, Jason Kelley, says, "A vaccine is not effective unless and until it is not distributed and trusted by customers."

2. For this, manufacturers and logistics companies delivering the vaccines heavily rely on blockchain technology to empower the vaccination distribution network to inject speed, accountability, and infuse transparency across the system. Due to this, the blockchain companies in India have also come into their own. With the blog, you will get to know the benefits of Blockchain in vaccine drive and how it effectively monitors and strengthens the system in Covid times. Major Applications of Blockchain in Covid 19 pandemic Source The healthcare ecosystem is facing challenges in curing the pandemic and hence blockchain acts as a rescuer in terms of controlling the disease, vaccine storage and shipment. Traceability Blockchain is used to track the movement of infected covid patients. With this, the healthcare sector can help the covid patients by informing them about the real-time data about the affected areas. The blocks inside the blockchain record the information on the safe zone, such as location, population, and the ongoing coronavirus outbreak status. The blockchain network provides transaction recording and monitoring capabilities through which tracing can be done easily and ensure transparency in the pharmaceutical supply chain. It provides real-time visibility of the covid vaccine distribution, and transparency is every aspect right from manufacturing to distribution.

3. Safety and efficacy assurance Environmental monitoring of transport and storage conditions and rapid recall traceability will help ensure efficacy and build trust. Disease Control Blockchain technology is one such technology that can be used to track the Covid 19 spread. It records the immutably patient's symptoms of covid infection and monitors and controls the infection by using its blocks. What is IBM's take on covid vaccination drive? IBM says that blockchain is a triggering technology that has helped most pharmaceutical companies pull off the worldwide covid vaccination distribution drive. Mark Treshock, blockchain solutions leader for healthcare at IBM, says that all the vaccines developed so far required different maintenance requirements and varying temperatures to store. Aside from all this, many other factors hinder the covid 19 vaccine distribution. The pharmaceutical companies developing these vaccines need to make sure that the vaccines are shipped to the right place and not stolen in their way. This is where blockchain technology acts as a rescuer. One of the Blockchain's most vital functionality includes supply chain integrity at various touchpoints. With this, companies can also check the counterfeit drugs as this is an incredible problem that results in the tragic loss of life, mainly in developing countries. Track Vaccine Records

4. Source The usage of Blockchain is not only limited to the tracking of vaccination drives. It will help the patients to keep track of their vaccination records as they can present this as proof of vaccination while traveling or in any other public places. Implementation in NHS hospital The UK's NHS (National Health Service) uses a Blockchain distributed ledger to track the temperature of the cold storage equipment containing the vaccines. A distributed ledger is a synchronized and digitalized digital system used to track human errors in the tracking system. Eliminates data forging and mutation Amidst all the vaccination drives, it is important for the healthcare companies to take care of the patient’s personal data. With technology, a patient can get detailed information such as blood oxygen level, medication and more about themselves using medical IoT devices. However, with blockchain, real-time data can be shared between the hospital and medical professional. It decentralized storage makes data sharing easier and transparent thus holding trust among stakeholders.

5. Track storage requirements Healthcare institutions rely on blockchain technology to track sensitive medical assets having unique storage requirements. Moreover, for the covid vaccines, the pharmaceutical companies need to monitor the ongoing optimal temperature of these refrigeration units, which is tracked using Blockchain. This maintenance will help them easily transport the vaccine in the entire vaccine supply chain and maintain trust as fluctuation in temperature may result in wastage of the vaccines. So, nevertheless, Blockchain is the ultimate technology that eradicates the risks of mistakes made by manual systems. All these applications of Blockchain result in radical cost cuts and efficiency gains. The distributed ledger technology of Blockchain provides a tamper-proof record-keeping system that is apt for recording and validating the results cost-effectively. Effectively monitor COVID-19 logistics with Blockchain Blockchain's decentralized ledger helps the vaccine distributors, vaccine providers such as the pharmaceutical companies, and common people to coordinate strongly with each other. The technology ensures that the temperature required to store the vaccine is trustworthy and the vaccine is stored and transported at the specified optimal temperature during the supply chain shipment. With this, companies will get a crystal clear view of the vaccine shipment to prevent them from the vaccine counterfeit. Counterfeiting of vaccines has become a serious concern by the time due to the high rise in demand. This has also resulted in logistics services going out of track. IBM's blockchain solutions leader "Mark Treshock" said that with the increase in vaccines' demand, the pharmaceutical companies tied up with the logistics companies will need to show the legitimacy of the covid vaccine doses. They need to ensure the common people that the vaccine is safe and transported under prescribed conditions. IoT and Blockchain

6. Blockchain and IoT coupled together ensures that the counterfeit vaccine is not delivered to the population. IoT stops the fraud arising from it whereas blockchain combats the counterfeiting of drugs. Blockchain’s distributed ledger accounts for accuracy, security and transparency. One of the biggest pros of using blockchain is that it permits all the parties to record the transaction at each stage of the vaccine shipment thus preventing counterfeiting of doses in the pharmaceutical supply chain. The tech paired with IoT results in smooth passage Let's suppose a pharmaceutical company is transporting the vaccine to a logistics company. In this way, the delivery driver could steal some vaccines, which the company will be able to figure out without the help of IoT. If the transporting vehicle is installed with this sensor, then the pharma company will detect when and where the vehicle stopped. The entire incident gets recorded on the blockchain ledger and the pharma company can raise the issue with the shipment or the logistic company. Hence, the duo of Blockchain and IoT helps in combating the corruption during the covid vaccine rollout. The Bottom Line The blockchain benefits in the covid vaccine drive is helping pharma and logistics companies to effectively combat the deadly pandemic coronavirus. With the implementation of blockchain in the covid vaccine shipment drive, there has been a complete transparency between the companies and the people out there. If you own a logistic company that deals with the shipment of vaccines, get in touch with the best blockchain development companies and hire Blockchain developers who will benefit both the industry as well as humanity.