Janus project aims blockchain at DSCSA

Researchers in the US have proposed a pharmaceutical-specific blockchain system – dubbed Janus – that they say is fully compatible with the traceability requirements of the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) but could layer in additional security.

The team from Central Washington University, Washington State University and Boise State University have published their model in the journal Blockchain: Research and Applications and say it is robust against various threats and attacks and “fair, scalable and resilient.”

The goal of the DSCSA is to create an electronic track-and-trace system for products in the pharma supply chain to prevent the infiltration of counterfeit, diverted and otherwise illicit therapies, and it was due to come into full effect this November until the FDA announced a one-year extension to allow stakeholders more time to prepare.

While various groups have already suggested that blockchain could add another level of security to the DSCSA, which currently relies on the use of serialised, unique product identifiers, the wide range of players in the pharma supply chain and wide variation in preparedness has proved a disincentive to take-up of the technology.

Janus is based on a cloning-resistant hologram tagging system that helps stakeholders trace products through the chain to confirm authenticity, according to the researchers, and is “fully compliant” with the DSCSA as well as being applicable to other industrial settings.

The model still needs some work, for example to handle the thorny issue of saleable returns – the processes that need to be carried out to check the serialised unique identifiers of returned products before they can be placed into inventory for resale – which can happen at any stage in the supply chain.

They would also like to expand its scope to handle the exchanges between pharmacies and consumers, ensuring that no counterfeits reach the hands of patients 

“Based on our implementation and large-scale evaluation of the system, we have shown that our design maintains approximately similar workloads between all stakeholders, is scalable for large networks…and resilient against malicious quorums,” write the authors of the paper.

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