Decentralized Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Management Using ERC-1155 NFT Digital Twins

Abstract

Pharmaceutical supply chain is facing severe problems caused by counterfeiting medicines, unclear tracking system, and inefficient recalling method, which lead to huge economical losses and endanger the public's health. In this paper, we present a novel blockchain-based solution with Non-Fungible Token digital twin (NFT), which is based on Ethereum ERC-1155 standard, to construct an unchanged and transparent record for drug unit's whole lifecycle from manufacturing to final patient. Our system replaces the vulnerable centralized database with a decentralized one to guarantee the integrity of data, automatic compliance and immediate verification. Experimental results on Ethereum Sepolia testnet show that our system achieves 100% success rate for 9 transactions which are 7 transfer transactions and 2 creation transactions with average confirmation time just for 17.8s. The total operation cost for all transactions is only $0.01 USD which is very cost-effective. Base on the comprehensive analysis, our system can save 85-90% of operation cost and improve 95% of recalling time compared with traditional system. The experimental results in this paper prove the practical feasibility and feasibility of economy using NFT digital twin to manage the whole pharmaceutical supply chain, and provide a strong framework to fight against counterfeiting and ensure patient safety.