OECD selects FarmaTrust’s Mongolia Project as Key Public Sector Trend
FarmaTrust’s pharmaceutical blockchain and AI project, which recently completed its feasibility study by the Mongolian Government body, the Specialised Inspection Agency, is featured by the OECD report discussing major international trends by public bodies using innovative technology.
FarmaTrust project selected out of 542 by the OPSI (Observatory of Public Sector Innovation), which is partner of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
The Observatory of Public Sector Innovation (OPSI) evaluated 542 cases of government innovations from 84 countries and identified three key trends in public sector innovation. FarmaTrust’s project was selected one of top 10 case studies of the use of innovative technology to prevent counterfeit drugs. In particular, the use of blockchain meant that there was greater transparency and easier installation in an environment which had technology infrastructure challenges. The use of mobile phone apps, advanced security applications and consideration of new regulatory requirements were amongst the issues considered by FarmaTrust for its solution implementation.
Early in 2018 FarmaTrust announced its partnership with Mongolia. The partnership announcement with Mongolia was quite significant, as at the time FarmaTrust was one of the few blockchain companies that managed to work at governmental level to utilise blockchain despite many doubters, particularly in the more developed countries. Since it was a Governmental body that had the intention to use this nascent technology, it was a huge endorsement of not just FarmaTrust’s vision, but also its strategic decision in applying blockchain and its capabilities at National level.
The fact that an Emerging country such as Mongolia was willing to take such a forward looking strategy, meant that it could leapfrog some of the legacy systems and technologies that are being used in the more Developed countries. It also meant that it could quickly digitise and future proof its pharmaceutical sector.
Since FarmaTrust is dealing with a Country, at governmental level, the task is much more significant and complex, than a straightforward proof of concept at a private company level. The feasibility study had to go into depth in a number of areas including impact on government departments, budgets and implementation issues.
The goals have been set
The Mongolian Government has its aim to reduce the large amounts of falsified medicine within their borders, and since its a large territory with porous borders, their citizens are at constant risk, sometimes in hard to reach areas, where medical support is not available, when most in need. Mongolia has large rural regions, with a low density of people in those regions. These residents in particular, rely on the legitimacy of the immediate and available medication without the ability to test its authenticity.
For these reasons, the entire chain of supply, from the moment a product enters the country or is manufactured, has to be transparent and traceable. To find out the specific requirements for this, Mongolia and FarmaTrust decided to launch a taskforce and create a feasibility study.
The feasibility study and the results
It is necessary to ensure the complete and reliable collaboration of all the supply chain partners as well as external partners that manage imports into Mongolia in order to give true end to end verification. The taskforce has therefore recommended the Mongolian Medicine Verification Program (MMVP) to enable this, and it will be put in place by the Mongolian Government. Manufacturers, importers and suppliers will be required and trained to work with the verification system.
Distributors and retailers, such as hospitals and pharmacies, will be trained to use the verification system and offer consumers a way to verify the medicine, either with their smart phones or related technology.
The Mongolian government, with the support of FarmaTrust, will establish the Mongolian Medicine Verification Organisation (MMVO), which will be responsible for the implementation and maintenance of the Mongolian Medicine Verification Program. The MMVO will also be responsible for setting up the Mongolian Medicine Verification System (MMVS), to establish the structure throughout which pharmaceutical products will be tracked. The MMVS will use the FarmaTrust Apps, such as the Track and Trace App, which offers partners in the supply chain the ability to input the product details and embed them onto the blockchain. The free Consumer Confidence App, is also available, which allows consumers verify whether medicines are fraudulent or not.
Going forward
The implementation phase will commence once the various governmental and regulatory requirements have been fulfilled. The plan is to implement in one of the 18 provenances of Mongolia and then quickly transition into a national rollout.
More in-depth information can be found on the follow pages:
https://trends.oecd-opsi.org/
https://trends.oecd-opsi.org/embracing-innovation-in-government-global-trends-2019.pdf (page 118–122)
https://oecd-opsi.org/innovations/counterfeit-medicine-detection-using-blockchain-and-ai/
The significance of the project cannot be understated. The success of a blockchain project in a country with limited and challenging technological infrastructure, means that it can be implemented anywhere in the world. It also sets out a clear implementation process and provides FarmaTrust significant experience at national level. If any other country, whether in the emerging markets or the developed markets wish to implement a national system to eliminate fake medicines, cost-effectively digitise their pharmaceutical supply chain, and future proof operations at a national level then FarmaTrust has the necessary expertise to do this quickly and cost effectively.
At FarmaTrust, with the support of the Mongolian Government, we are constantly looking at improving the system, even whilst the regulatory elements are being implemented. This includes data dashboards, forecasting and planning at national level which we hope to fine tune so that national healthcare budgets are utilised more effectively with less waste.
If you have any questions or would like further information on FarmaTrust, please do not hesitate to contact us.
