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Blockchain technology has typically been associated with cryptocurrencies, but the new technology has also begun to permeate the pharmaceutical industry. While they are embracing the blockchain for the benefits it can provide in the supply chain and in serialization support, they are not yet making the most of its potential in other areas, including support for drug discovery and development. Blockchain may have applications in the management of clinical trials, sharing of medical data with other researchers, or as an electronic medical record for patients, researchers and physicians.
Given the increasing amount of data in the life sciences industry – from wearable devices to genomic data – life science organizations will have to look for new ways to safely store and retrieve this ever-increasing amount of information. Blockchain could provide a perfect mechanism for stacking information on data on safe "blocks" and providing security checks to limit access to information if necessary. However, before the blockchain can be successfully implemented more widely, it is essential that individuals and organizations work together to support different cases of use for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, avoid duplication of adoption efforts and standardize processes.
The house built by blockchain
A recent survey by the Alliance of Pistoia asked the life sciences professionals where they believed that the greatest opportunities for the use of blockchain could lie; the most popular use case identified (by 30 percent) was in the medical supply chain. It is therefore not surprising that most of the blockchain implementation has so far been focused on this area. Fifteen percent of respondents believe that blockchain will have the maximum value for sharing scientific data: this data could be anything from pre-competitive research data to clinical trial data. Interestingly, the FDA seems to be in agreement with these respondents, as it is already experimenting with a blockchain system for the secure exchange of large-scale health data.
Much of the data stored by pharmaceutical companies is precompetitive and, once used within the project that generated it, does not add any direct value to the organization that holds it. Although data may have previously been ignored as irrelevant for a specific research project, it could be extremely beneficial for another research project elsewhere. The ability to "share" this data with other life science organizations, while maintaining data rights, could benefit all organizations involved in drug discovery and development. Blockchain technology has the potential to be a significant enabling factor in such "holding rights" data sharing.
In a heavy industry such as the regulation of life sciences, blockchain could provide an ideal solution to allow for wider, safer and possibly more public data sharing – for example by allowing regulatory agencies to better validate their data. authenticity of data and ensuring that it complies with the legislation. Furthermore, integrated security in a blockchain provides a more controlled and potentially private means for storing and sharing data. Since it can be extremely sensitive and personal data – medical records and information on clinical trials – must be well protected to ensure the privacy and safety of patients.
However, before life science organizations reach the stage where they are able to use blockchain technology to share data, various industry actors, regulators, researchers, academic groups and technology companies must work together to build a blockchain that is suitable for the purpose and overcome the obstacles to its implementation.
The basis for a pharmaceutical blockchain
One of these barriers is the perceived lack of value that the blockchain provides beyond a traditional database, as cited by eighteen percent of our respondents. Moreover, despite the highest levels of validation that a blockchain could provide for data, about five percent of respondents are worried about the fact that little security for the system to be used successfully by the life sciences and health industries.
The most significant barrier, however, is the current lack of blockchain knowledge and skills; in our survey, fifty-five percent of life science professionals identified a lack of access to qualified blockchain personnel as the biggest barrier to adoption, with an additional sixteen percent saying that the difficulty in understanding blockchain is the most significant obstacle for life science organizations. A further proof of this lack of understanding of the blockchain is the fact that 6% of the life science professionals interviewed believe that the biggest obstacle to blockchain implementation is the amount of power consumption required, when this it's not true for blockchain platforms focused on the company like Hyperledger.
In the full range of scientific disciplines, the skills gap is often cited as a challenge that organizations must overcome. In an age where the new technology is transforming science, the lack of technical expertise will likely continue to impact on the adoption of new innovations in all sectors, including life sciences. To help overcome this problem, The Pistoia Alliance has launched a blockchain community to share knowledge and best practices.
Given the technological knowledge will be crucial for pharmaceutical organizations wishing to develop and adopt blockchain, collaboration with professionals and companies outside the industry is vital, particularly with the technology industry, as well as with competitors and other organizations such as CROs and regulators. Without this collaboration, we run the risk that more blockchain projects are executed simultaneously, without the communication of the sector, all trying to solve the same problems. This means losing the opportunity to develop and implement industry-wide standards and data. Regardless of the cost of multiple companies that individually develop more similar blockchain systems, this is likely to hamper the development of the sector – as there are still data trapped in the silos, which is not conducive to the "FAIR data principles" (which data are available, accessible, interoperable and reusable), thus increasing the obstacles to collaboration in the future.
Building new potential in the sector
We are now in the stage where collaboration for the development of the blockchain can not be delayed anymore. The research of the Pistoia Alliance found that sixty percent of the life sciences organizations are already experimenting with or actively using blockchain technologies. This has increased since 2017, when only twenty-two percent of the life sciences organizations were experimenting with or using blockchains. This rapid growth in technology research shows that industry needs to act now: we need to mitigate the skills gap by ensuring that existing staff receive appropriate training, technical information and expert advice to take advantage of the blockchain in their work . And we have to work together. Blockchain can only support a broad collaboration in the industry if the industry joins to implement the technology in the most useful and most impactful ways.
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