A Solution to Counterfeit Medicine?
Is there a solution to counterfeit medicine? One of the issues that has exacerbated the proliferation of pharmaceutical crime has been the wide availability of counterfeit medicine in both developed and developing countries. As mentioned by the two case studies on Kenya and Nigeria in our topic synopsis, counterfeit medicine is a corruptive force in the medical industry and continues to prevent vulnerable populations from acquiring necessary medication to combat things like HIV/AIDS. Just this past week, German-based software company SAP SE announced the availability of new blockchain technology that will allow consumers to verify medication through product codes, lot numbers, expiration dates, and distinct serial numbers. This topic is extremely interesting and pertinent to our topic of pharmaceutical crime, so I encourage you all to read more about it here before committee!
When reading this article, think about the following and how it could help guide your research on solutions for committee!
1. How can blockchain technology be integrated into the pharmaceutical industry?
2. Will there be regulatory changes because of the introduction of such technologies?
3. How will this technology be integrated into countries who lack regulatory agencies (like the United States' FDA) and/or the technological capacity to do!
Please email us if you have any questions about committee, the topic, or research! Can't wait to see you all in March!
Peru believes the usage of bockchain technology is a viable solution. However, this kind of technology must be paired with other solutions in order to holistically attack pharmaceutical crime. Experienced counterfeiters will most likely be able to counterfeit the packaging of the pharmaceuticals so Peru believes this aspect must be addressed. Furthermore, this does not address the large amount of pharmaceutical crime within areas like the black market. However, Peru believes this technology is something that should be investigated and possibly used along with other solutions to decrease the large amount of counterfeit medications. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThe Delegation of Peru
Canada recognizes the importance of blockchain technologies, along with several other technologies which can play a crucial role when addressing pharmaceutical crime. The use of telemedicine can provide critical healthcare to people throughout the world at cheap and efficient rates. This style of virtual healthcare will work well with blockchain technologies in order to provide those in need with more medical attention and support. The more that medicine is easily accessible to people, there will be less occurrences of people turning to illicit drug trade for a source. The cutting off of consumers of the illicit drug trade will help to reduce the rates at which it occurs and many people will abandon the fake medicine for the real. Another technology that can help are the Radio Frequency Identification Tags (RFID tags). These tags will be crucial in the tracing and control of the counterfeit medical industry, and will allow for the sharing of information of the medical supplies between doctors and police forces. This transfer of information will ensure that prescription medicines are not able to be bought and sold illegally. Canada looks forward to further addressing this issue in committee. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThe Delegation of Canada
The Delegation of Australia strongly supports the creation and implementation of this German blockchain technology on an international level. The creation of a technique that can be used by the people themselves is crucial in preventing the use of counterfeit pharmaceuticals after their distribution; if not already seeded out in that process. The ease of identification is vital if the illegal distributors are to be stopped. With current systems in place, illegal pharmaceutical companies hardly take the time to ensure consistent packaging, and will likely be reluctant to maintain updated packaging and legal requirements. This system goes in tandem with Australia's proposed tag identification technique that will prevent the mis-identification of similar counterfeit packaging, if any. The tags will be made with a unique plastic that will be extremely hard to replicate or obtain in the first place, and will be introduced by our delegation in committee.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the interesting article,
Australia
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ReplyDeleteThe State of Israel recognizes the utmost importance of blockchain technologies. There are more than 200 blockchain startups based in Israel and this growth is happening due to effective regulation and close cooperation of many blockchain startups with educational and academic research organizations. The government looks to leverage the benefits of the technology, by taking public measures to ensure the technology is not used for malicious purposes. Thus, Israel looks forward to working with other countries to not only implement blockchain technology, but a variety of solutions such as improving crime fighting units and investing in computational criminology programs. If Interpol fails to act quickly, the abuse in the pharmaceutical crime center will continue. At the coming conference, Israel hopes that the ICPO will work to establish efficient and effective methods to halt and prevent pharmaceutical crime.
ReplyDelete- State of Israel
The US is very excited that new blockchain technology is being created to help confirm the authenticity of pharmaceuticals. One of the solutions we were looking into is modeling a confirmation of authenticity system based off the Kimberley System for diamonds which has been highly successful. This would require audits and tracing of the chemicals that go into the drugs as well as tracking for transportation. Hopefully as a committee, we'll be able to use this new blockchain technology to also help authenticate many pharmaceuticals.
ReplyDelete-USA
The delegation of Czech Republic believes that this block chain software is viable. However to be truly efficient, certain criteria has to be met and it should be paired with other solutions because it does not address black market pharmaceutical crime, which is a large issue. The certain criteria ranges from security to implementation. Their has to be an incentive for pharmacies to implement the technology. However the block chain software is a vital step in the right direction to prevent pharmaceutical crime.
ReplyDelete-Czech Republic
The future of the world economy is dependent on re-innovation and entrepreneurship through systems such as blockchain. A positive of blockchain is its public ledger where data can be posted and remain uncensored due to its decentralized set up. This structure allows corporations like SAP to develop a barcode system that scans via smart device from their “SAP Advanced Track and Trace for Pharmaceuticals” technology. However, blockchain’s weakness lies in its decentralization where complaints of consumers are not heard when they receive fraudulent goods from a supplier or sell to a delinquent consumer within their own borders. This may be through receiving false products or leveraging the random and varied path of nodes in a transaction to initiate a reverse transaction and virtually pay nothing. This travesty is the reason why China proposes a mass reserve of citizen-only blockchain wallets for government healthcare and pharmaceutical expenses that will be granted out to citizens, on opt-out basis, with their government ID. This small scale centralization will create a moderator who can receive complaint and investigate potential crimes that may pose as threats to the wellbeing of the people. Enforcers would be at the local level like China’s own State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) where state, province, municipal, and county-level workers in Customs, the China Postal Office, Administration of Broadcast and Television, etc. all conduct social supervision tasks like opening mail, hotlines, emails, and website activity to catch any criminals. This system is feasible for nations who lack regulatory agencies because this is enforced through a breadth of governmental departments specifically law enforcement and the mail service.
ReplyDeleteAnother way in which blockchain implementation would be beneficial would be in the financing of small and midsize businesses (SMBs). Blockchain can assist China’s goal of “Made in China 2025” where China aims to improve the image of Chinese manufactured goods’ quality through drastically improving the tangible quality of goods — specifically in pharmaceuticals after a faulty rabies vaccine that led the Chinese public to lose trust in their President and their government. Improvement would be done through the import of European vaccines known for quality, and would be analyzed to determine the process behind creating better quality product. With such a grand plan, the pharmaceutical producer SMBs are often left behind due to financing issues and inefficiencies that inhibit their ability to establish R&D for newer, higher quality drugs. Blockchain introduces more instant accounts receivable transactions that pare energy spent because accountants no longer have to perform the transaction manually alongside an auditor, now they just have to monitor it on a public ledger that is highly transparent and constantly audited. This allows SMBs to be able to contribute more and advance the “Made in China 2025” goal faster. The largest challenge posing this committee’s proponents of instating blockchain in financing as of now is winning over traditionally-oriented firms and businesspeople that the new transparency is positive and encouraging them to test the system with a small division of their firm.
Thank you,
The People’s Republic of China
Considering that, from 2017 to 2018, United Kingdom-based blockchain companies received over 500 Euros’ worth of investments, we are perfectly positioned to fuel development at the forefront of this technology. Unlike some nations, we acknowledge blockchain as a legitimate tool which can be used to stimulate one’s economy instead of the means to create a temporary economic bubble. All the same, noting the Parity Multisig Wallet scandal and consequent disappearance of $300 million USD, the United Kingdom advises caution when promoting widespread wallet usage.
ReplyDeleteAs evident from an initial research project (scheduled for summer of 2018) by the United Kingdom Law Commission on financial Blockchain law, we believe that any regulations for developed or developing nations must ensure that the technology is safe and reliable as well as competitive. The same applies for Blockchain-related pharmaceutical law.
Of course, with a technology wherein its credibility is derived from its decentralization, there is little governments can - or should - do to interfere with that. However, imposing too harsh regulations on blockchain would undermine any incentive to invest in it. Therefore, the international community must apply legislation directed at promoting accountability and reliability to “smart contracts” and other blockchain-based technology.
The United Kingdom looks forward to bringing blockchain into the future of the pharmaceutical industry with an extension of the 1975 WHO Certification Scheme.