FarmaTrust aims to revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry by providing tracking information via the blockchain. Its fully functional method gives security to everyone involved in medicine, including the public, pharmaceutical companies, regulators, and governments, by confirming that no counterfeit drugs enter into the supply chain.
With help from the blockchain and artificial intelligence, FarmaTrust hopes to do more than just get rid of counterfeit medicines. The team also hopes to provide automatic audits, automatic payments, and automate regulatory compliance. This will improve efficiency and transparency within the supply chain. One of the goals is “just in time” delivery for the drugs, which will lead to an even distribution worldwide in areas that need it, preventing price spikes. The system can also prevent fraudulent returns and waste via expired drugs. Overall, the system is immutable, encrypted, secure, and safe.
Why Is FarmaTrust Necessary?
FarmaTrust aims to provide a solution to numerous problems currently plaguing the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry is valued at $1.3 trillion every year, with the supply chain mechanism valued at $80 billion and the counterfeit drugs industry at $200 billion. With so much money flowing through the industry on an annual basis, protections like those offered by FarmaTrust become necessary. FarmaTrust will also reduce the risk of fake medications, something that currently causes between 50,000 and a million people to die every year.
What Are Some Key Features of FarmaTrust?
FarmaTrust is an efficient system that can function with your legacy software and hardware, making it much easier for pharmaceutical companies to start using it. It is also a future-proof scalable system and available worldwide. The system accounts for international regulations and complies with them. It also provides data security for both the public and corporations.
Mongolian Government Partnership
In February, FarmaTrust and the Mongolian government signed a partnership. They will be piloting a year-long project that will prevent creating and distributing counterfeit medications. The project extends to both nongovernmental and governmental agencies in the country. FarmaTrust’s CEO explained that the multinational collaboration combines emerging technologies like the blockchain to secure and optimize the supply chain in the pharmaceutical industry.
Partnership with Mongolian Government, Image from Coinpedia.
The team sees Mongolia as an excellent place to start since its population is just 3 million. This size means that the team can begin tracking and implementation nationally right away. At the same time, Mongolia’s location between two countries with a history of issues related to counterfeit medicine (Russia and China) makes it an even better location.
This will be an excellent test run for FarmaTrust to prove that its technology works as planned and that the project is feasible, which it should be. The partnership with Mongolia will also allow FarmaTrust to determine what, if any, adjustments it needs to make before working to expand its tech globally.
What Do Experts Say about FarmaTrust?
Experts are very impressed with FarmaTrust, and numerous companies have named it a top tech company in 2018. The Next Web included FarmaTrust’s use of artificial intelligence on its list of tech trends to watch this year and pointed out that this solution might save more than 125,000 lives each year just in Africa. Hackernoon included FarmaTrust on its list of 11 blockchain startups to watch in 2018, citing the potential to save millions of lives each year.
Yahoo also included FarmaTrust on its list of three startups that use blockchain tech to improve lives, touting all of its numerous benefits. LinkedIn has also published an article praising FarmaTrust as a perfect use case for the blockchain in healthcare. These are just a few examples of the praise FarmaTrust has already received.
What Has FarmaTrust Accomplished So Far?
The journey of FarmaTrust began in 2016, when the team identified the problem of counterfeit drugs, researched the pharmaceutical market, and conducted deeper research into the issue. By the end of the second quarter, the team had researched the blockchain, how it works, and available platforms to find the best one. During the third quarter, they found blockchain engineers, did the Research Code, and ironed out project details. By the end of the fourth quarter, they had the first version developed with full stack developers on board and had established the design and architecture.
2017 included just as many milestones, including adding artificial intelligence and machine learning and making and providing a demonstration of the working prototype in the first quarter. In the second quarter, they extended the management team, adjusted the team structure, added new IT members, and explored financing options. Quarter three involved finding and appointing the advisors, completing the first drafts of the whitepaper, expanding the product definition, and demonstrating the MVP to those who were interested. The year wrapped up with a private presale in the fourth quarter.
What Does the Future Roadmap Look Like?
By the end of the first quarter for 2018, FarmaTrust will have extended the blockchain MVP, completed testing for speed and scale, expanded the product description, created the web app, and demonstrated the MVP. The token distribution event will also take place this quarter. In the second quarter, the team will deploy the marketing and operations strategy, build the analytics service and AI, create a regulatory reporting module, and conduct alpha and beta testing, in addition to launching the mobile and wallet apps.
The third quarter will be just as busy, publishing in the App Store and Google Play, enhancing the packet tracker API, developing the API layers plus documentation, and developing the business events engine. The team will also extend the deep learning machine and continue developing microservices.
The fourth quarter will include continuing the building of the API ecosystem, developing the interoperability standards and protocols for the dynamic interchange of data, and building an abstraction layer plus connectors for multiple blockchains. The team will also harness artificial intelligence and data and add mobile apps.
Plans continue into 2019, with the first quarter’s main goal being deploying client mobile apps for the pharmacies, end consumers, and customs. The second quarter will see the production release of Zoi.
Conclusion
With a working product already developed, FarmaTrust is positioned to be a significant asset to people and companies around the world. The use of tracking and the blockchain to verify pharmaceuticals should successfully catch counterfeit drugs and dramatically reduce the risk of these reaching consumers. With the additional services, such as automated audits, FarmaTrust will likely provide benefits for all parties involved.
