Combating Counterfeit Drugs: A quantitative analysis on cracking down the fake drug industry by using Blockchain technology

India, a global leader in manufacturing and the largest supplier of cost-effective generic drugs around the world, especially to the African countries under the United Nations aid, is facing a widespread fake drug epidemic. One of the major reasons behind this is the unregulated and complex drug supply chain. When a drug consignment change ownership from manufacturer to distributor and then to the wholesaler, no information is exchanged between the parties. We lack adequate auditability and transparency of the original source of drugs. Consequences include counterfeit drug problem, inefficient recall process of the drugs and lack of trust. By putting the entire drug supply chain of India on Blockchain, we propose to perform a quantitative analysis on leveraging unique blockchain properties like authenticity, accountability, and ability to handle sensitive information to solve India’s counterfeit drugs problem permanently. It will strengthen the supply chain and will introduce the much-needed transparency of transactions and quality assurance by tracking a drug through its entire lifecycle from the extraction of raw materials to the patient taking the drug. Along with this, smart contracts can be deployed which will provide automation, trust, and security to the system. Smart contracts are digital protocols that can be programmed to perform a task when a particular goal is reached without any intervention of a third party and can facilitate services like automatic payments, quality control, and trust between stakeholders.