IBM working on blockchain system for fake meds in Africa

IBM is said to be working on a blockchain-based authentication platform for medicines that is targeted at falsified medicines in Africa.

The project is being conducted by IBM’s research laboratory in Haifa, Israel – its largest outside the US – and is intended to provide a way to trace medicines through the supply chain and make it harder for falsified or substandard drugs to reach patients, according Kenya’s The Standard news site.

IBM has been one of the biggest proponents of blockchain, an unchangeable distributed ledger system that allows transactions across the supply chain to be transparent to participants and – according to its supports – could eliminate fraud.

Earlier this month, for example, it announced its platform is to be used by French court clerks to record changes in companies’ legal status, and it also recently launched a blockchain-based cross-border payment system.