TAKING THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY INTO THE FUTURE: THE FARMATRUST STORY

Drug Discovery and Development

This entails the series of processes from when a new medication candidate is found to the point when it is approved and made available on the market for end user consumption. This is usually a very cumbersome, expensive and prolonged process, especially when the drugs are meant for humans. According to John La Mattina, in his book 'Drug Truths, Dispelling the myths about Pharma R&D', it can take an average of about 9-10 years to successfully discover and bring a drug to the market. A recent report published by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development (CSDD) pegs the cost of developing a prescription drug that gains market approval at $2.6 billion. Drug development usually involves 4 primary stages:

Drug discovery/product development
Pre-clinical research
Clinical trials and lastly,
Pharmaceutical supply and distribution

The expensive and prolonged nature of drug production has led to 2 most pronounced problems, the solutions to which I am here to discuss today.

The Problem of Counterfeit Medicines

A counterfeit medicine is one that is deliberately and fraudulently mislabeled with respect to identity and/or source. Both branded and generic products can both be counterfeited. A drug is counterfeit if it is not produced by the authorized manufacturer and contains:

Contains correct or wrong ingredients
Contains no, inadequate or excessive amount of the active ingredients
Contains right proportions of ingredients but in a fake packaging.

Note that day in day out, drugs are counterfeited in new and innovative ways and are responsible for at least 120,000 to 1,000,000 innocent deaths each year. In fact, according to a recent PWC report, up to 30% of all drugs in circulation are fake. So you can understand why a permanent solution to this problem is a matter of urgency.

The Problem of Supply Chain Cost

Drugs can be very expensive, especially when it's new, since the original manufacturer is given a fixed amount of time (patent) to exclusively produce the drug in question so as to recover their cost of discovery and testing. A major aspect of the manufacturer's expenses is the money spent in the supply and distribution of their products. This administrative cost is usually rolled over to the consumer, making otherwise less expensive drugs very expensive.

If only there was a concise and comprehensive platform that could both accurately and securely record data relating to serialized packages as they pass through each point in the supply chain lifecycle. This could significantly minimize the cost of supply and distribution as well as provide a way for users to confirm the authenticity of pharmaceutical products. This is where FarmaTrust comes in.

Now, What is FarmaTrust?

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To put it simply, it is a tokenized, AI and blockchain based platform that automates end-to-end tracking of medicinal products throughout the pharmaceutical supply chain. It is decentralized ,efficient and a transparent system to solve the issues regarding pharmaceutical supply chains. FarmaTrust has developed the blockchain-based Zoi Supply Chain Information Exchange platform which allows both the manufacturer and the consumer to track and trace the route of drugs so as to confirm its legitimacy. This way, the manufacturer does not have to spend money to meet industry track and trace compliance and reporting requirements. The lives of users are also saved since they can selectively purchase genuine products.

How does FarmTrust Work?

Supply Chain Data Automation: The platform provides a secure and reliable data exchange system that allows for the exchange and coordination of information across existing Supply Chain Management Systems (SCMS) and the Zoi information exchange network.

Smart Contracts and Intelligent Processing: The platform intends to utilize the abilities of the Ethereum blockchain, with the help of pharmaceutical companies, government agencies and law enforcement to develop robust and intelligent data processes that meet the track and trace compliance requirements.

Data Security and Confidentiality: FarmaTrust makes it possible for the various entities involved to verify products without necessarily revealing the product information. This is because, some product information may be commercially sensitive. The data that is being shared across the supply chain by FarmaTrust is encrypted.

Packet Level Tracking and Traceability: Tracking and tracing the route and origin of every product is key to determining its legitimacy. For this reason, FarmaTrust has introduced a tracking token, specifically designed to digitally track genuine products that have been packed with unique Serialized Product Keys. This way, it is possible to track a single bottle of cough syrup all the way from the manufacturer to the consumer.

Artificial Intelligence: AI is increasingly being employed to simplify and perform tasks more efficiently. AI is the development and use of computers that can perform tasks that are traditionally within only human capabilities. Machines can now learn on their own and make predictions based on the information made available to them. FarmaTrust intends to incorporate AI to predict future demand and supply patterns as well as safe routes to transport products.

FTT & ZOI Tokens

FarmaTrust will issue FTT tokens (an ERC20 standard token). The FTT token is the publicly tradable digital asset that allows all users to access and participate in the Zoi ecosystem. FTT tokens can be staked to receive ZOI tokens.

On the other hand, ZOI tokens are the utility tokens used to fuel transactions and payments on the Zoi platform. They are for use of FarmaTrust services. Note that ZOI tokens are only available to use on the Zoi platform and can be bought and sold on the FarmaTrust Zoi Exchange. ZOI tokens are burnt when used on the platform.

Summary

In conclusion, FarmaTrust is the future of the pharmaceutical industry. It is here to significantly cut down the deaths and adverse reaction caused by counterfeit pharmaceutical products all over the world. It will also cut down the cost of drugs for consumers by reducing the amount of money that would otherwise have been spent to manually monitor and track drugs. FarmaTrust is providing users with a free mobile app with which you can easily scan the QR code on the package of any medicine to determine its chain of custody and for the matter its originality. I have no doubt, that if well adopted, Farmatrust will significantly cut out the level of counterfeit medications present on the global pharmaceutical market. Health ministries, Governments, NGOs and regulatory bodies can all employ the services of this amazing platform to make their work easier and efficient.

Consider This Use Case

If a company, lets call it Company A, started producing cough syrup for babies and wanted to adopt a labeling and packaging system so as to meet the track and trace regulation compliance requirements from their region. They could simply employ the services of FarmaTrust. All they will have to do is integrate the FarmaTrust API clients into their systems as well as that of the the downstream supply chain operators, logistics partners, hospitals and retail chains. Once this is done, the company opens an FTT wallet and buy an amount of tokens depending on the number of products they intend to produce. For example, they could buy a total of 1000 tokens if they intend to produce a 1000 bottles of cough syrup. This is because, each bottle of syrup requires a unique Compliance Tracking token.

So, as each bottle of cough syrup travels through the supply chain, FarmaTrust can validate, confirm and monitor the exchange of products. This information is recorded on a blockchain until it gets to the end user. At this point, the user can also confirm the chain of custody of the drug by using their Farmatrust mobile app. Once the product gets to the user, its corresponding unique Compliance Tracking token is burnt. It's that simple.

Meet The Teem

GREAT TEAMWORK

For a quick introduction, kindly checkout the video below: