Hyperledger Global Forum

UCLA and LedgerDomain were accepted as part of the DSCSA Pilot Project Program, which was launched by the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) enhance the safety and security of the drug supply chain. The pharmaceutical supply chain relies on paperwork and manual transcription from one system of record to another. Many medicines go out in bulk and are divided until the dispenser counts the patient’s drug into an amber bottle. The challenge for the 21st century is to reduce suspect or illegitimate product while ensuring patient data security.

The pilot project focused on the enhanced requirements for package-level tracing and notification that go into effect in 2023 to comply with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). It assessed system requirements for a successful implementation on a larger scale, including identifying, flagging, and preventing the distribution of suspect and illegitimate products.

At the heart of this effort was a last-mile mobile application that helps deliver lifesaving medications to babies at the famed Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. UCLA is one of the nation’s preeminent research and academic medical centers, currently ranked #7 best hospital in the US. UCLA Health dispenses across the spectrum of large medical centers as well as ~200 small clinical settings, with an annual spend over $250 million on commercial product.

During this talk, Ben Taylor will discuss the significance of blockchain to the pharmaceutical supply chain in the coming decade, and core outcomes from the FDA study. He will also discuss why Hyperledger is critical to enterprise-grade blockchain applications, and key challenges that the Hyperledger community faces in the areas of governance and orchestration.