A Comprehensive Review of the Revolutionary Potential of Blockchain in Safe, Secure, and Sustainable Pharmaceutical Operations
Abstract
Background: Pharmaceutical research and industrial operations generate vast volumes of sensitive data across drug discovery, formulation development, manufacturing, and distribution, necessitating secure, transparent, and reliable digital infrastructures. The global counterfeit drug market exceeds $200 billion annually, posing a significant threat to patient safety and public health. Blockchain Technology (BT) has demonstrated the potential to reduce counterfeit medicine circulation by approximately 40%, offering a transformative framework for pharmaceutical data governance.
Methods: A systematic literature review was performed using ScienceDirect, PubMed, IEEE Xplore, and SpringerLink databases to analyze peer-reviewed studies published between January 2017 and December 2024. Structured keyword strategies and predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria were employed to evaluate blockchain-driven pharmaceutical operations and their integration with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Results: The findings reveal that BT substantially improves data integrity, immutability, traceability, transparency, and security across pharmaceutical workflows. Integration with AI and IoT further enables real-time monitoring and predictive analytics, leading to 30-55% improvements in operational efficiency, 25-50% reductions in logistics and compliance-related costs, and significant enhancements in clinical trial data accuracy, pharmacovigilance reporting…
How strong is the evidence?
Evidence Hub reads this as a systematic review, done in people. Its evidence level is 1 of 5 (Highest · pooled evidence). Pooled evidence from several studies sits at the top of the evidence pyramid.
Read the paper
Related studies
- Preliminary Toxicity Analysis of 3DCRT versus IMRT on the High Dose Arm of the RTOG 0126 Prostate Cancer Trial
- Adaptive Radiotherapy for Head and Neck Cancer: Initial Clinical Outcomes from a Prospective Trial
- American Association of Physicists in Medicine Task Group 263: Standardizing Nomenclatures in Radiation Oncology
- Motion Management Strategies and Technical Issues Associated with Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy of Thoracic and Upper Abdominal Tumors: A Review from NRG Oncology
- High-dose-rate interstitial brachytherapy as a monotherapy for localized prostate cancer: treatment description and preliminary results of a phase I/II clinical trial
- Highly efficient training, refinement, and validation of a knowledge-based plan quality control system for radiotherapy clinical trials
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.