How Decentralized Storage Keep Pharmacy Industry Secure?
By Suffescom Solutions
April 10, 2023
The pharmaceutical industry possesses sensitive information such as patient information, R&D data, new research, and clinical trial results. Unfortunately, such data has long been a target for cybercrime. Cyberattackers often try to steal IP intellectual property such as R&D data or drug formulas. Even as indicated by statics, more than 200 million patient records have been exposed to data breaches in the pharmacy ecosystem.
This increased vulnerability to data breaches shows that traditional methods of securing pharmacy industry data are insufficient. The pharmacy industry must shift to decentralized storage, a great data security and immutability platform.
If the term is new to you, read this post and learn how decentralized storage works and how it can keep the pharmacy industry more secure than ever.
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What Is Decentralized Cloud Storage?
Unlike centralized storage, where the data is stored on servers hosted by a single computer, decentralized cloud storage involves storing data across numerous computers, also called nodes. If one node fails or goes offline, the data can still be accessed through another network.
The nodes are connected together on a decentralized peer-to-peer network that ordinary users or miners manage. In this storage solution, files are protected with the help of cryptography and blockchain technology to encrypt files. In decentralized storage, the data is stored on a distributed ledger, providing an immutable record of all transactions and ensuring integrity.
Decentralized storage offers several benefits over traditional storage solutions for storing pharmacy industry data. It provides improved security, greater privacy, and increased reliability. As there is no central point of failure, decentralized storage is much more resilient to data breaches. Additionally, because the data is distributed across various nodes, it becomes much more difficult for unauthorized parties to manipulate or access it.
Benefits of Decentralized Cloud Storage For the Pharmacy Industry
In the pharmacy industry, critical information is scattered over multiple computers, which makes it prone to data theft. Even the current pharmacy infrastructure is considered inadequate to keep secure sensitive data.
By incorporating decentralized cloud storage, pharmaceutical companies can more sacredly streamline the process of sharing data. Let's have a look at some of the benefits of incorporating decentralized storage works in the pharmacy industry:
Secured Patient Data
In the pharmacy sector, securing patient data is the most crucial thing. Meddling with patient records can create many problems for doctors and patients. As per the statistics, around 176+ million patients were breached between 2009 and 2017. The cyber attackers stole credit card information from these records and used them in unethical ways.
Decentralized storage such as blockchain is distributed, tamper-proof, and incorruptible, stopping third-party interference in data monitoring or transactions. No institution without permission can have access to the database.
Transparent Supply Chain Management
Drugs and medicines are made in the pharmaceutical companies that are further supplied across the countries per the needs and requirements. What happens if someone tampers with the medication and drugs while transporting them to another country?
Hence, there is a need for a transparent supply chain for the importers and exporters. Decentralized cloud storage fades away this problem as it is a tamper-proof and transparent solution. For instance, in Blockchain, a distributed ledger is constructed where each transporting point is entered from the origin point to the destination. It makes the supply chain transparent across transportation.
Minimizes Risk Of File Loss
Excessive demands on pharmaceutical business server resources frequently cause network bottlenecks. There is a limit to how much traffic a single server can process before it slows down or stops entirely. Decentralized storage doesn't rely on a single server, so processes like file downloads and data exchange are much less likely to be slowed down by heavy traffic.
Additionally, the required data can be quickly obtained from another node even if one node fails. The risk of file loss is significantly reduced by decentralized storage because multiple copies of each data fragment are kept on various nodes. Users can access the entire file anytime, even if one or two nodes are down due to a hardware or transmission issue.
Tracking And Tracing
Decentralized storage solutions can help in tracking and tracing drugs. The distribution of substandard and expired medications may impact the health of patients. Therefore, such solutions serve as a lifesaver to stop the supply of tainted or outdated medicines.
Implementing the supply chain for tracing and tracking drugs will also assist in preventing drug loss during supply. Moreover, monitor the conditions of the medicines during supply, thereby preventing the supply of tainted or defective drugs.
Enhanced Cybersecurity
In a decentralized storage system, users cannot view complete files because files are dispersed across so many nodes. Smart contracts bind the parties hosting each node, preventing them from accessing or tampering with private or sensitive data.
Due to the amount of data that pharmaceutical companies manage, the absence of a central server is particularly advantageous to them. Cybercriminals would no longer have a singular, all-inclusive target on which to concentrate their attacks, and any successful breach would, at best, provide them with nanoscopic data. Simply put, it is not a wise use of time and effort to attempt to hack a server within a decentralized system.
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Key features Of the Pharma Industry Decentralized Storage Solutions
Decentralized storage applications have the following features to ensure data security and protection in the best way possible:
Patient Data Management
Anyone visiting a pharmacy must be sure that their information, such as their social security number or credit card information, is secured. A pharmaceutical company using a decentralized storage solution is the only guarantee that cyberattackers won't get any access to such sensitive patient data.
Medical Data Security Management
Drug development is a major time and financial investment area for pharmaceutical firms. However, most companies lack a safe method for locking up their trade secrets and medication formulas. Numerous instances exist where such online repositories of valuable data are compromised, exposing businesses to swift market share losses.
Decentralized storage applications will keep medical data secure across multiple devices using encryption. This ensures that neither an unauthorized nor a single party can decide to decrypt, change, or transfer any information through various channels.
Drug Supply Chain Management
A decentralized storage works will ensure that the drug supply chain transactions are immutable and time-stamped. This makes it easier for companies to identify and track fraudulent drug transactions and flag them before they reach customers.
Pharmacy Transactions Management
Pharmaceutical companies handle numerous patient payments and claims around-the-clock, in addition to issuing internal requests for past-due patient payments. When competent hackers and rogue employees gained access to this kind of data in the past, it opened the door to all kinds of trouble.
Decentralized storage solutions streamline these procedures that help in lowering the likelihood of claim denials and payment issues. There is no room for human mistakes or time delays because all database modifications are visible in real time across the network of users, including all stakeholders. Any incorrect entries that could result in underpayments are detected immediately.
Firms Utilizing Decentralized Storage Solutions In The Pharmaceutical Industry
Many pharma industries utilize decentralized storage solutions such as blockchain to secure sensitive data. Some of the notable ones are given below:
Genentech
Genentech- a subdivision of the McKesson Crop., Pfizer Inc., Roche Group, and AmerisourceBergen Corp. are part of pharmaceutical companies working with a blockchain startup- the MediLedger Project. This startup is developing a platform that enables pharma companies to track their drugs and medicines along the supply chain and secrets the supply chain data.
Merck
Merck and the American pharmaceutical wholesaler AmerisourceBergen are collaborating with SAP to create a decentralized anti-counterfeiting solution. They will tag the drug shipments with SAP's ATTP identifiers. It will allow the manufacturer to track the package and be aware of ownership transfers. Moreover, the barcode on the package will verify its authenticity if it's returned or when.
FarmaTrust- Clinical Trials
The pharma industry is regulated, as the products directly impact the health of millions of people. They must ensure fairness and transparency of clinical trials and evidence validity before the regulators approve the drug. Clinical trials now favor decentralized-based solutions because of their transparency, security, and immutability.
FarmaTrust- a UK-based startup that developed ethereum blockchain-based solutions for the pharma industry. It uses blockchain technology to ensure secure anonymization. Mobile Apps are used to notify the patients when they should take the medications in trials. This solution enables companies to get regulatory approval quicker and only provides access to the data to interested parties.
Novartis
Novartis has been one of the leading pharmaceutical companies utilizing blockchain technology in healthcare for years. Recently, they partnered with the European pharmaceutical industry and European Union in a bid to develop a consortium with hospitals, tertiary institutions, SME blockchain companies, and clinical labs.
The company utilizes decentralized technology for supply chain monitoring, counterfeit drug detection, clinical trial optimization, and patient data management.
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Now you must have understood that decentralized storage holds promise as an effective solution, with its secure technology allowing for immutability within medical databases and networks. To implement such technology into your pharmaceutical company, you will need the help of experts like Suffescom.
We are regarded as one of the leading blockchain development companies. We have over 13 years of experience in IT and 5.5+ years in blockchain technology. We are a team of exceptional blockchain developers that can guide you through the entire process. Here's why you should choose us for building a decentralized cloud storage solutions for your pharma company:
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