1. Introduction
Centralised track-and-trace databases for pharmaceuticals create a single point of failure and require all supply chain participants to trust a common operator, whereas a permissioned blockchain distributes trust across the consortium of manufacturers, distributors and regulators.
2. Methodology
A Hyperledger Fabric network was configured with five organisational peer nodes representing a manufacturer, two distributors, a regulator and a pharmacy chain, using a Raft ordering service. Chaincode was written to record batch creation, custody transfer, and temperature-log events, with an embedded rule rejecting transfers where logged temperature exceeded product-specific thresholds.
3. Results
The network sustained 1,200 transactions per minute with average transaction finality of 0.7 seconds under simulated load representative of a mid-sized distribution network, and genealogy queries tracing a batch full custody history returned results in under 200 milliseconds regardless of chain depth up to 12 hops tested.
4. Conclusion
Permissioned blockchain infrastructure can support pharmaceutical traceability at throughput levels compatible with real distribution networks while enforcing cold-chain compliance automatically. Future work will pilot integration with existing ERP systems at a mid-sized distributor.
References
[1] Androulaki E. et al., Hyperledger Fabric: A distributed operating system for permissioned blockchains, EuroSys, 2018. [2] Mackey T. K. and Nayyar G., A review of existing and emerging digital technologies to combat pharmaceutical counterfeiting, Expert Opinion on Drug Safety, 2017.