Blockchain Pharma

Abstract

Blockchain, a distributed ledger technology (DLT) that sustained the creation of the first digital currency, Bitcoin, crosses many business areas, including healthcare, to promise better economic solutions. Blockchain generalized implementation is already a reality in Estonia, perhaps the most digitally advanced country globally, with proven healthcare results for its citizens. From a pharmaceutical industry perspective, blockchain offers solutions as diverse as the structuring of clinical trial protocols, the traceability of medicines along the supply chain, and intellectual property rights. Additionally, the DLT's cryptographic protocol, whose main characteristics are immutability, consensus, security, and transparency, may support both the web's decentralization and the transition to a Semantic Web, which is recognized by many as highly recommended.