NITI Aayog inks SoI for collaboration against counterfeit drugs

NITI Aayog has singed a Statement of Intent (SoI) with Oracle to pilot a real drug supply-chain using blockchain distributed ledger and Internet of Things (IoT) software 

to fight the growing problem of counterfeit drugs in India.

• Strides Pharma Sciences and Apollo Hospitals will partner in this effort.
• Oracle is a US multinational computer technology corporation that specializes primarily in developing and marketing database software and technology, cloud engineered systems, and enterprise software products.

Need for this collaboration:

• The problem of fake and counterfeit drugs is a major issue, costing Indian pharma industry billions.
• At the same time, it is also putting patients at higher risk.
• This agreement with Oracle, will help ensure that Indian drug manufacturers and healthcare experts have access to standards-based, modern technology platform- blockchain and Internet of Things (IoT) to help eliminate fake drug distribution.

About Blockchain technology in drug supply-chain:

• Blockchain technology will help to permanently register a drug's record in the manufacturer's drug supply chain (serial number, scanning, labelling).
• This will leave no scope for record tampering.
• At every point of hand change of drug, it records drug's movement from manufacturer to logistics, stockiest, hospital or pharmacy to consumer.
• In case of a fake drug, software will detect irregularity.
• Additionally, critical information such as chemical ingredients of the drug or maintenance of temperature control in case of life saving drugs or vaccines, can also be tracked.

Major Advantages of Blockchain Software:

• It will allow sharing of information across drug supply chain securely with every exchange of information getting recorded.
• This system cannot be tampered with a record of drug movement.
• Besides being a decentralized database, it has the inability to delete any records so there can be no dispute, if offender is caught.

Question:

Q. NITI Aayog has singed a Statement of Intent (SoI) with whom to pilot a real drug supply-chain using blockchain distributed ledger and Internet of Things (IoT) software to fight the growing problem of counterfeit drugs in India?
a. Microsoft
b. IBM
c. Google
d. Oracle