Blockchain's Impact on Counterfeit Drug Traffickers

Afghanistan's Ministry of Health and several local pharmaceutical companies will use the Blockchain developed by Fantom to fight counterfeit drugs. According to Fantom's statement, the Opera Blockchain will be used to monitor 80,000 medical products in Afghanistan.

After the first trial, the system will be scaled to cover more products during the year. During the test, 50,000 hand sanitisers, 10,000 Kofol tablets and 10,000 Dioacare foot cream will be monitored.  The system was developed to address Afghanistan's counterfeit drug problem.  Fantom said local law enforcement seized 100 tonnes of fake, expired or non-standard drugs in 2017. The company plans to ensure the control of products throughout the supply chain by tracking transactions with Blockchain.

Auditable Supply Chain

Tracked products will have a barcode that is scanned at each stage of the distribution process. Each time the label is scanned, the product name, batch number, expiry date and other details will be converted into hash code and recorded on the Blockchain along with a timestamp.

What is a hash?

The mathematical process that converts the processed data into fixed-length output is called hashing. One of the goals of this process is to hide the data. Let's say, the passwords written while signing up to websites are converted into hash and written to the database. Thus, the person examining the database cannot know the user's password.  Another use is to create a secure summary of the data. No matter how long the input data is, the output will always be the same length, so the hash code can be stored for summary purposes.