A Safe Path Towards Equitable Vaccines With Blockchain
Martin Glick at Aves Lair
There are three key areas where the addition of blockchain technology will aid the pharmaceutical industry as they research, produce, distribute, and trace the eventual COVID-19 vaccine across the world.
Blockchain in Vaccine Collaborative Scientific Research
While there has yet to be serious international coordination, and we can chalk this up to the complexities of politics; there are bound to be initiatives from NGOs, Higher Education Institutions, and local doctors who want to be part of the organizational structures to get the chance to study the vaccine and its research output. Blockchain can help make sure everyone is on the same page. Below are some of the pain points and the solution blockchain technology might be able to offer:
- Distributed data across research centers, can cause confusion
Blockchain innovations can go about as a single reference to highlight, share, and circulate the enormous measure of information that is created with each new test.
2. International collaboration poses its own logical difficulties
With blockchain, analysts and specialists from around the globe can team up on the way toward a viable antibody. The permanence of blockchain guarantees legitimacy and is seen as a record of truth.
3. Exploratory phase: quickly shifting priorities
Blockchain can be utilized to share time-stepped, carefully designed proof of progress (or disappointment) of a possible immunization.
4. Pre-clinical Stage: drug companies need to agree to certain data points
The genuineness of the blockchain record gives one unchanging shared wellspring of “truth” for improvement where biotech and drug firms can work together on their discoveries in a safe manner, ensuring everyone has equal access to the data.
5. Clinical advancement stage: companies need to track consent from volunteers and send this information to governments for approval
When testing on people is performed, blockchain gives an unchanging and reliable workflow to follow when gathering consent from volunteers. These outcomes (vulnerabilities and results) can be sent to Governmental bodies, for example, the Food and Drug Administration for endorsement or dismissal of the antibody.
Blockchain x vaccine clinical trials projects to watch:
- MediLedger Network is a consortium focused on pharma supply chains that counts Gilead, Pfizer, Amgen, Genentech, AmerisourceBergen, and McKesson among its members and uses Chronicled, a startup, to provide the underlying technology. This blockchain-based system allows competitors to collaborate on a shared platform and discuss drug safety issues without sharing sensitive information.
- Another recent example came in 2019 when Boehringer Ingelheim decided to handle its blockchain technology clinical trials supported by IBM Canada.
- Technologies to boost audibility and operational efficiency in clinical trials are being developed in a partnership between Triall and Sphereon, with the Verial clinical record management solution now being used on a blockchain in the first clinical trial in progress.
- Guardtime, in collaboration with healthcare regulatory agencies in Estonia and the United Kingdom, is working on tracking and managing patients’ consent for the use of their healthcare records. The Prescrypt project, spearheaded by Deloitte in the Netherlands, is pursuing a completely different focus by working to put patients’ drug prescriptions on the blockchain for secure communication, usage tracking, and analysis by healthcare professionals.
Blockchain in Vaccine Packing, Storage, and Distribution
2020 will be remembered as the year in which the vaccine for a coronavirus became the number of priority of Nations as they battled the virus. The research and testing that leads up to it, is just one small piece of the puzzle that needs to be dealt with. The ultimate test will be in the packing, storage, and distribution of the vaccine. To ensure that this is done with reliability, blockchain technology could aid in areas never before explored. The field is ready for innovation, and to some degree will require it, as the logistics of getting the vaccine in the hands of everyone equitably will be a challenge.
Distributing the vaccine equitably for global reach will be a monumental task
While there are bound to be different geopolitical and nationalistic interests that will impact who finds the cure, who fabricates it, who funds it, and who needs it, the supply chain must be “fair.” There must be a worldwide agreement on who ought to get it initially, one not based upon who paid for initial investments in the vaccine. Such an evenhanded supply chain must be based on a consensus-driven system having immutable integrity of data with no single source of control. To accomplish this global ideal, instead of a national ideal, immunization access will fundamentally rely upon an open data network. Blockchain and distributed ledger technology will be essential for equitable COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
Producing and shipping the vaccine is very complex, can blockchain technology be attached to every step of this process?
The vaccine supply chain involves not only manufacturing the vaccine but storage and capacity aspects, cold-chain transit, domestic and international shipping. In turn, pharmaceutical companies may need to utilize the blockchain to help clean up their supply chains, which could increase transparency and improve communication with vendors. Vaccines manufacturers have limits on what they can use, making sourcing more complicated, which is why balancing these issues is of crucial importance.
Can blockchain ensure that all steps of distribution are taken, even to the end-user?
Blockchain permits all partners — from merchants to health workers — to record and screen the development of immunizations along a supply chain. Following the course of the vaccine from the manufacturer to a health facility to the end-user creates security and diminishes waste. The stock of vaccines can also be closely monitored, along with smaller objects like the number of necessary syringes or rubber stoppers. Joined with Internet-of-Things gadgets, a blockchain-fueled supply chain allows for close monitoring of temperature controls. This would certainly increase overall efficiency.
The ultimate political maneuver for a country to claim is that one of their neighbors or rivals received special treatment when receiving the vaccine. How do we trace and track the dosages to make sure things are equitable?
An open system to track and trace every vaccine dose accurately and transparently would require the global agreement of vaccine researchers, pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, distributors, healthcare workers, and governments. The key to success would rely on the portion of these individuals who agree to have access to the ledger. Without a single source of control, blockchain can help in the delivery of the vaccine to the individuals who need it more, not to the individuals who control or were more involved in the development of the drug, which would lead to favoritism.
Blockchain x vaccine distribution projects to watch:
- StaTwig: a vaccine supply chain management platform
StaTwig has been building a vaccine supply chain management platform that guarantees all partners have total permeability of all immunizations at the public, state, and region levels and at various phases of the supply chain. The platform utilizes QR codes [Barcodes/Serial Numbers] printed at unit-levels to follow the antibodies from the manufacturer to end-consumer on an open-source blockchain platform. At each touchpoint in the supply chain, the stage records information, for example, amount, temperature record, timestamps, a chain of authority, and price against the unique QRcode.
2. Brazil uses IBM’s Hyperledger to build a blockchain-based National Health Data Network (RNDS).
Aiming to promote “the exchange of information between the points of the Health Care Network, allowing continuity of care in the public and private sectors”, the system will keep track of everyone who has received a COVID-19 vaccination. Patients' medication, treatment as well as vaccine injection information will be uploaded to the decentralized network. Theoretically, blockchain technology allows the tracking process to be more efficient while ensuring patient data integrity.
3. DHL and Accenture join on blockchain delivery logistics
A blockchain-based serialization prototype was developed by DHL and Accenture with nodes in six geographies to track pharmaceuticals through the supply chain.
Stakeholders, including manufacturers, warehouses, dealers, pharmacies, hospitals, and doctors, can share the ledger tracking these medicines. Lab-simulations demonstrate how more than seven billion unique serial numbers and 1500 transactions per second could be done by blockchain.
Read the full report.
4. US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and IBM work on the manufacturing supply chain
This partnership uses blockchain to classify, monitor, and trace nationally distributed prescription medicines and vaccines.
The project was approved by the U.S. The Drug Supply Chain Protection Act (DSCSA) was created to improve the regulatory control of drugs that are counterfeited, stolen, tainted, or otherwise harmful.
