Blockchain, IP and the pharma industry—how distributed ledger technologies can help secure the pharma supply chain

Abstract

Blockchain technology can be defined as an open ledger of information that is distributed and verified across a peer-to-peer network, rather than through one central server. In other words, it is a computerized public ledger that can apply to almost anything you may usually save to a spreadsheet or database. Each transaction or block is transmitted to all of the participants in the network and must be verified by each participant node solving a complex mathematical problem. Once a block is validated, it cannot be modified without changing it across the whole network. Distributed ledgers are inherently harder to attack because, instead of a single database, there are multiple shared copies of the same database. As no single person, institution or company hosts or controls the information, the storing of the information on the blockchain is perceived as (nearly) unhackable. Different types of data can be added to a blockchain, from transaction information to photos, videos and design documents and the technology is developing further with new types of distributed ledger technologies (DLTs), such as hashgraph software, which is meant to address the scalability issues of traditional DLT technology. While the traditional concept of blockchain is an open and anonymous network, there are also ‘private’ blockchains, mostly of interest to the financial and insurance industries, which pre-screen who is allowed to administer the ledger.