The Role Of Blockchain In Drug Discovery

The blockchain technology, has proven to be a versatile tool for decentralized monetary transactions, data tracking and exchange. In other words, blockchains essentially act as distributed ledgers that record transactions on a common digital platform. Distributed verification, digital signatures, immutability, time-stamped transactions, consortium networks and smart contracts, are some of the key characteristics of blockchain-enabled platforms. Presently, blockchain technology is being used across several industries, such as banking, cyber security, supply chain management, government and healthcare sectors.

In healthcare, this technology is being used to maintain patient records, ensuring privacy and security of patient data, recruitment of patients for trials and promote transparency and traceability in the supply chain. It also supports the drug discovery and clinical evaluation process, which is reported to have a failure rate of 80%, due to various errors, including fraud, data falsification and trial misconduct. This can be improved through the use of blockchain that acts as a strong platform for an enhanced clinical practice, in terms of maintaining patient records and enrolling patients for trials. Overall, the blockchain technology has become an integral part of the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Components of Blockchain

Various components of blockchain technology have been mentioned below:

• Distributed Network: The decentralized, peer-to-peer network is comprised of several nodes, which are representative of network participants. Each user in the network can store an identical copy of the blockchain and has the authority to verify and certify digital transactions within the network.

• Shared Ledger: The shared ledger enables users in the network to store recorded digital transactions. It is worth mentioning that only verified transactions carried out in a distributed network are added to the shared ledger.

• Digital Transaction: In general, any digital asset or information that has the potential to be stored in a blockchain is referred to as a digital transaction. Information related to digital transactions is stored as digital blocks, which feature a cryptographic hash that is created using the block’s timestamp. After the creation of first block, subsequent blocks are created and encrypted with reference to the previous entity. However, before a new block can be added to the distributed ledger, its authenticity is validated based on the consensus of the majority of nodes in the network. This ensures that all copies of the distributed ledger of blockchain are similar, thereby, eliminating the risk of losing stored data.

Players Offering Blockchain in Drug Discovery and Clinical Trials Market

Presently, over 50 companies are actively engaged in offering blockchain in drug discovery and clinical trials, worldwide. Around 56% of the blockchain technology platform providers offer public blockchain, also referred to as permissionless blockchain. This is followed by players offering private blockchain (44%). Private blockchain is also referred to as permissioned blockchain as only specific users have access to it and is generally used by the entity it belongs to. It is comparatively less preferred than public blockchain as public blockchain is more secure and less vulnerable to hacks.

Further, within clinical trial management, the key focus area of blockchain technology is patient data management (72%). This can be attributed to the fact that securing patient data and records will increase the efficiency of trials being conducted.

Applications of Blockchain Across Various Industries

The blockchain technology has emerged as a viable option to store / exchange data within various industries by providing end-to-end visibility, streamlining processes and resolving issues in a much faster manner. In addition to this, blockchain can help improve security of patient data, while making it easier to share records across providers, payers and researchers.

Applications of Blockchain Technology in Clinical Trials

Various applications of blockchain technology in clinical trials have been mentioned below:

• Patient Recruitment: It is considered as one of the most tedious procedures in the clinical trial process. Blockchain technology can reduce the time required for this process significantly, as it helps to anonymously connect patients registered for trials and their trial sites. Subsequently, the principal investigator (PI) can select potential participants according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria defined in a protocol.

• Medical Data Sharing and Privacy: Blockchain provides a secure tracking system as the ledger contains all the updated information, making it possible for all participants to be aware of the progress of the trial. Additionally, each patient has an encrypted address, which is mapped to his / her identity; as a result, protecting the identity of the patient is easier.

• Data Integrity: Each transaction is validated using a consensus algorithm, making it possible to trace back and identify the origin of the problem in case of fault or error detection in a chain.

• Transparency: Transparency reduces the probability of clinical sites that are selectively reporting optimistic results. This can be avoided with the use of a blockchain ledger and clinical trial researchers can also increase the checks within their organizations to make sure their trials are completed ethically and with complete transparency.

Further, drug manufacturers and distributors are present across different parts of the globe, thereby making drug tracking and tracing difficult for pharma companies. In this complex system, many cases of fraud go unrecognized, which negatively impacts the manufacturers and patients, as well as enabling loss of revenues for drug developers. Blockchain can be an effective solution in preventing counterfeit drugs and other pharma products, by tracking every transaction in the supply chain. With real-time data access on the blockchain network, it will be extremely difficult to add counterfeit products into the supply chain.

Advantages And Limitations of Blockchain in Drug Discovery

The blockchain technology serves as an integral part of the drug supply chain by enhancing the trackability and traceability of drugs and other pharmaceutical products, from manufacturing to supply, in order to eliminate counterfeit drugs and medicine. This allows proper management of the process. Further, in cases of data security breach, blockchain provides a secure tracking system as the ledger contains all the updated information. In addition to this, each patient has an encrypted address, which is mapped to his / her identity; as a result, protecting the identity of the patient is easier.

Future Perspectives

In the last decade, the popularity of blockchain technology has invariably grown. Specifically, it has made a considerable impact in the healthcare and financial sectors. Blockchain has the potential to revolutionize the healthcare sector by overcoming the existing challenges associated with the use of this technology. One of the key features of blockchain is its ability to enable transparency in functions and privacy of data. In the future, blockchain technology may aid in provision of personalized, authentic and reliable clinical trial services, by combining up-to-date and secure patient data with other emerging technologies. Considering that blockchain technology is already employed in healthcare and various other industries, additional efforts and initiatives will allow these industries to leverage the full potential of this revolutionary technology.

Author Bio:

Roots Analysis is a global leader in the pharma / biotech market research. Having worked with over 750 clients worldwide, including Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, academia, venture capitalists and strategic investors for more than a decade, we offer a highly analytical / data-driven perspective to a network of over 450,000 senior industry stakeholders looking for credible market insights. All reports provided by us are structured in a way that enables the reader to develop a thorough perspective on the given subject. Apart from writing reports on identified areas, we provide bespoke research / consulting services dedicated to serve our clients in the best possible way.