Secure and Transparent Blockchain-Enabled System for Pharmaceutical Drug Authentication

Counterfeit drugs are an extremely critical issue that affects global public health, economic security, and trust in government regulations. The existing drug management systems are mainly centralized and opaque, with little data integrity, and are easily susceptible to data manipulation. We present a secure, transparent, blockchain-enabled framework for pharmaceutical drug authentication and end-to-end supply chain verification. The proposed system takes advantage of the decentralized, immutable, and tamper-resistant nature of blockchain technology in recording and validating critical supply chain activities, which include manufacturer registration, distributor verification, pharmacy validation, and administrative approval. A unique QR code is generated for each drug product, which serves as the drug product's digital identity and helps ensure traceability and authenticity verification for the end consumer. The proposed system has been implemented using the Django web application framework, which has an integrated custom blockchain architecture that utilizes SHA-256 to ensure data integrity and prevent unauthorized tampering with records. Based on the experimental results, 100% integrity validation of the blockchain technology has been achieved, along with accurate detection of any attempted tampering, efficient transaction processing, and verification using the QR code technology with minimal response time. It has been observed that the proposed framework is effective for ensuring the traceability of the drug product, building trust among the various stakeholders, and fighting the menace of counterfeit medicines without the need for any central authority.