PharmaLedger & LogiPharma Collaboration
PharmaLedger is a three-year project (2020-2022) that aims to bring an innovative blockchain-based platform to implement across the healthcare ecosystem to better instill trust, transparency, data privacy, and patient empowerment.
While talk of blockchain for healthcare has been discussed for some time now, PharmaLedger is leading the way for industry innovation through their collaborative, consortium-approach. Funded by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) with support from the European Union and European Forum for Good Clinical Practice (EFGCP), the consortium is made up of 29 diverse partners across 13 different countries including 12 global pharma companies, various tech subject matter experts, universities, research centers, and patient/healthcare representative organisations.
Project Focus
Together, members of the PharmaLedger consortium are collaborating to build a widely trusted platform that supports the design and adoption of blockchain-enabled healthcare solutions while accelerating delivery of innovation that benefits the entire ecosystem- from manufacturers to patients. This innovative platform is being validated through eight different use cases under three domains: supply chain, clinical trials, and health data.
Supply Chain
PharmaLedger has four use cases under the umbrella of supply chain. Building off one another, these use cases leverage the benefits of blockchain technology to support patient safety and reliable product traceability across healthcare supply chain processes [Clinical Supply Traceability + Finished Goods Traceability]. Some of the key components coming out of these use cases are an app to support electronic product information [ePI] and a variety of anti-counterfeiting capabilities [Anti-Counterfeiting]. You can learn more about PharmaLedger’s Supply Chain use cases by rewatching presentations from their first open webinar: A Trust-Centric Healthcare Journey Part I: Supply Chain Use Cases.
Clinical Trials
If the Covid-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s how much we all depend on the rate and success of clinical trials. PharmaLedger has two use cases under this domain which aim to reduce the time, cost, and administrative burden of clinical trials while in turn accelerate clinical development. The main focus of these use cases are to improve the way that patients and volunteers learn about and participate in relevant clinical trials [Clinical Trial eRecruitment], and increase clinical trial participation by allotting patients more information through a digital informed consent process [Clinical Trial eConsent].
Health Data
Within the healthcare data management space, PharmaLedger is reshaping the way the healthcare ecosystem sees and manages patient health data. By leveraging the benefits of blockchain, IoT medical devices, and remote patient monitoring (RPM) technologies [IoT Medical Devices], they aim to give patients access to share real-time medical data with clinical researchers in a trusted and secure way. Building off this, they are using Artificial Intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics to create a trusted blockchain-based network to leverage real-world evidence to support more efficient diagnosis and treatment, and to give patients full ownership of their own data [Personalised Medicine].
You can learn more about PharmaLedger’s Clinical Trial and Health Data use cases by rewatching presentations from their recent open webinar: A Trust-Centric Healthcare Journey Part II: Clinical Trial & Health Data Use Cases.
The co-creation of these interconnected use cases helps bring blockchain-enabled healthcare into the foreseeable future, with results that align mutual understanding and higher adoption likelihood of this technology in industries beyond healthcare as well.
PharmaLedger Communications
Using the first year (2020) of the project to focus on design and foundations, PharmaLedger successfully chose their eight use cases and organised the architectural pillars of their blockchain-enabled platform. Now in year 2, PharmaLedger has taken steps toward the development and deployment of each use case, including the creation of the first official prototype for each of our eight use cases, starting with the Electronic Product Information (ePI) app. In 2021, the consortium is also putting a greater priority on patient engagement and technology education.
You can learn more about how PharmaLedger is bringing the patient voice into the project in this article here, and stay on the lookout for future webinars, explainer videos, and demonstrations of each use case.
Our Collaboration
LogiPharma has entered a new Collaboration for Dissemination with PharmaLedger to further strengthen the projects’ exposure within the supply chain community, and to support LogiPharma by bringing blockchain to the center stage of supply chain discussions.
PharmaLedger Presence at LogiPharma
On April 20th we will come together for a Live Panel and Collaborative Boardroom focused on the question: How can you work with your pharma peers to establish standards that drive forward widespread blockchain adoption? Partners include PharmaLedger Industry Lead Daniel Fritz (Novartis), Brian Thornley (AVP Global Supply Chain, MSD), Implementation & Solutions Co-Lead René Kronenburg (AbbVie), and GSK Lead Himanshu Agarwal (GSK).
Learn More About PharmaLedger
To learn more about PharmaLedger, you can find them @PharmaLedger on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube, or head over to their website to subscribe to receive monthly newsletters and download any PharmaLedger resources and publications.
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This project has received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 853992. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA.
Disclaimer: Any information on this article solely reflects the author’s view and neither IMI nor the European Union or EFPIA are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained herein.
