Tackling Counterfeit Medicines

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Pharmaceutical Technology discussed the potential increased risk of counterfeit medicines in the UK post-Brexit and how blockchain could be a useful tool to tackle the issue.

Counterfeit pharmaceutical products are a global issue that impacts all stakeholders in the pharma industry and poses a potentially lethal threat to patients. Globally, measures have been put in place to help tackle the problems posed by counterfeit medicines; however, as the United Kingdom is now no longer a part of the European Union, concerns have been raised that the country could be left exposed to an increased prevalence of counterfeit medicines infiltrating the market.

Anti-counterfeiting measures are expected to become stricter in the future to ensure patients are protected and with the rising levels of data that will be required to be managed and processed, blockchain could offer a suitable solution to industry. To learn more about the issue of counterfeit medicines and the potential benefits that can be gained from using blockchain as an infrastructure technology, Pharmaceutical Technology Europe spoke with Raja Sharif, CEO and founder of FarmaTrust—a provider of blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) provenance systems for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors.