A robust drug recall supply chain management system using hyperledger blockchain ecosystem

Divyansh Agrawal; Sachin Minocha; Suyel Namasudra; Amir H Gandomi

doi:10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.105100

A robust drug recall supply chain management system using hyperledger blockchain ecosystem

Comput Biol Med. 2022 Jan:140:105100. doi: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.105100. Epub 2021 Dec 2.

Authors

Divyansh Agrawal¹, Sachin Minocha², Suyel Namasudra³, Amir H Gandomi⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Computing Science and Engineering, Galgotias University, Uttar Pradesh, India.
² School of Computing Science and Engineering, Galgotias University, Uttar Pradesh, India; Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Punjab, India.
³ Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Institute of Technology Patna, Bihar, India; Universidad Internacional de La Rioja, Logroño, Spain.
⁴ Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Electronic address: gandomi@uts.edu.au.

PMID: 34894591
DOI: 10.1016/j.compbiomed.2021.105100

Abstract

Drug recall is a critical issue for manufacturing companies, as a manufacturer might face criticism and severe business downfall due to a defective drug. A defective drug is a highly detrimental issue, as it can cost several lives. Therefore, recalling the drug becomes one of the most sensitive issues in the pharmaceutical industry. This paper presents a blockchain-enabled network that allows manufacturers to effectively monitor a drug while in the supply chain with improved security and transparency throughout the process. The study also tries to minimize the cost and time sustained by the manufacturing company to transfer the drug to the end-user by proposing forward and backward supply chain mathematical models. Specifically, the forward chain model supports drug delivery from the manufacturer to the end-user in less time with a reliable transport mode. The backward supply chain model explicitly focuses on reducing the extra time and cost incurred to the manufacturer in pursuit of recalling the defective drug. Moreover, a real-time implementation of the proposed blockchain-enabled supply chain management system using the Hyperledger Composer is done to demonstrate the transparency of the process.

Keywords: Blockchain; Hyperledger composer; Pharmaceutical industry; Product recall; Supply chain.