15th January 2020 – The PharmaLedger project is officially kicked off, strengthening the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) efforts to accelerate delivery of healthcare innovation. Representatives of the 29 consortium entities met in Prague, Czech Republic to mark the beginning of a 3-year collaboration to deliver a blockchain-based platform and use case reference implementations for Supply Chain, Clinical Trials and Health Data.
Sponsored by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) under the Horizon 2020 programme, PharmaLedger is a 36 month project that brings together 12 global pharmaceutical companies and 17 public and private entities; including technical, legal, regulatory, academia, research organizations and patient representative organizations. The goal of the project is to provide a widely trusted platform that supports the design and adoption of blockchain-enabled healthcare solutions while accelerating delivery of innovation that benefits the entire ecosystem, from manufacturers to patients.
Blockchain as a technology has made into headlines mostly due to its financial application. By enabling the secure trade of crypto assets blockchain has opened an unprecedented window of opportunity far beyond its initial financial application. Its features will lead to the creation of “digital trust” within the healthcare ecosystem and improve the overall value chain integration.
The consortium aims to exploit the blockchain attributes of decentralization, immutability, data integrity and security to develop. patient-centric solutions with a health data marketplace, and to improve supply chains and clinical trial processes. The high potential value to the healthcare ecosystem makes blockchain a key enabler for both vertical and horizontal innovation in the healthcare digital journey. The PharmaLedger platform is being designed for efficient decentralized governance, wide adoption by the stakeholders of the ecosystem, compliance with extant and emerging standards and regulation, and end-to-end connectivity and
interoperability.
The project addresses the key challenges of the healthcare ecosystem through prioritization and validation of use cases. The use cases focus on three main domains: supply chain, health data and clinical trials. Sustainability of the platform will be ensured by leveraging existing blockchain protocols, open source reference implementation, and a fully documented, actionable methodology for evolutionary digitization of the healthcare industry.
“Blockchain is a team sport. Now we have the right team with the right resources to lead the development of interoperable solutions that can eliminate waste, enhance security and privacy, build trust and ultimately benefit patients and the healthcare ecosystem.” Daniel Fritz – Novartis & Industry Lead PharmaLedger
“Blockchain is a key technology for the future. Coupled with HL7 FHIR standards we aim at supporting the FAIR (Findable, Accessible Interoperable, Reusable) principles in the health sector shaping a major standardization driver for data quality and interoperability to enable empowered patients and the health data economy. PharmaLedger sets the foundations to enable that future.” Catherine Chronaki – Secretary General, HL7 International Foundation (Advisory Board to PharmaLedger)
“PharmaLedger brings together experts from the pharmaceutical and technology sectors as well as patients and hospitals, making. it a true cross-sector, multi-disciplinary public-private partnership. As such it is well placed to generate practical solutions that will allow blockchain technologies to be integrated into drug development and healthcare in a way that is supported by all stakeholders.” Dr. Pierre Meulien, Executive Director, Innovative Medicines Initiative.
Consortium Members:
- Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (Project Coordinator) – ES
- Novartis Pharma AG (Industry Leader) – CH
- Projecto Desenvolvimento Manutenção Formação e Consultadoria – PT
- RomSoft SRL – RO
- Arteevo Technologies Ltd. – IL
- Technovative Solutions Ltd. – UK
- EKON Modeling Software Systems Ltd. IL
- Centre for Research and Technology Hellas – GR
- AbbVie INC. – NL
- AstraZeneca AB – SE
- Bayer Aktiengesellschaft – DE
- Boehringer-Ingelheim GmbH – DE
- GlaxoSmithKline Research and Development Limited – UK
- Janssen Pharmaceutica NV – BE
- Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp – US
- Novo Nordisk A/S – DK
- Pfizer Ltd – UK
- F.Hoffmann-La Roche AG – CH
- UCB Biopharma SPRL – BE
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven – BE
- Onorach Ltd – UK
- National Research and Development Institute for Cryogenics and Isotopic Technologies – RO
- University Hospital Würzburg – DE
- Democritus University of Thrace – GR
- Hospital do Espírito Santo de Évora – PT
- Ospedale Pediatrico Bambino Gesù – IT
- Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda – PT
- European Patient Forum – BE
- European Forum for Good Clinical Practice – BE
