One giant leap into Distributed Ledger based Pharma Supply Chain.
Authentag is proud to have completed Phase 1 of our research into distributed-ledger based interrogations of disparate data sources. While research into this field is still ongoing, the ability to verify a pharmaceutical packaging code with its source of truth data pool has been confirmed through bi-lateral testing between Authentag’s www.Track.one product verification platform and SAP, Rfxcel, Tracelink, Cardinal Health, and other system providers covering 98% of the US pharmaceutical supply chain.
This research was supported by funding from the National Science Foundation.
The NSF, which helped fund the invention of barcode technology and the internet, among other far-reaching technologies, has shown itself to be open and supportive of what is a complex application of blockchain technology, encryption, and massively distributed data management, all of which integrates into a real-world application of distributed data set analysis and response.
Work completed to date has shown that the data sets are available and that today’s version of barcodes, the 2d data matrix along with unique labeling requirements in global Pharmaceutical manufacturing, and the existing systems that support these standards, can be used to power autonomous decentralized smart contracts that can be trusted to ascertain product states from multiple confidential sources and only release that data to controlled parties if certain data criteria are met.
Authentag sees great potential in utilizing these smart contracts and applying them to finance within the Pharma industry. At the end of the Financial year 2019 the top 50 Pharmaceutical companies had over $155 billion of inventory on their books with an average cost of debt at 4.3% APR and a weighted average cost of capital of 8.4%. Financing more of their inventory from debt and lowering the cost of that debt through standardized trustable contracts will save industry and patients billions of dollars a year.
To this end we have been working in parallel with a specialist in DApps and the application of blockchain technology for business; Menlo One. Through the combination of Menlo One’s expertise and our work with the NSF, we see a potential for linking real returns from investment-grade corporate debt into a decentralized financial (DeFi) platform that will remove middle man inefficiency from the financing of large trade finance debt instruments. This will give better rewards to individual lenders, lower the cost of capital available at scale to the industry, and increase the use of product verification throughout the lifecycle of a product, which will increase the probability of counterfeit identification by manufacturers, protecting patient welfare.
While Authentag’s focus is initially within Pharma through our experience building out our product verification SAAS solution www.Track.one and then expanding across other industries as unique product identification becomes prevalent.
For more on Pharmaceutical Verification see www.Track.one. For more on Authentag see www.Authentag.com
NSF SBIR #NSFstories #NSFfunded
