Leveraging blockchain for combatting drug counterfeiting in the pharmaceutical sector
Asfia Aziz, Sunil Suman, Shahab Saquib Sohail, Dag Øivind Madsen · Cogent Business & Management · 2025
Drug counterfeiting is a growing global threat to public health and the trustworthiness of the pharmaceutical supply chain. This study proposes a decentralized, tamper-proof blockchain framework to enhance drug traceability and authenticity verification. Unlike existing blockchain-based systems such as PharmaCrypt and Drugledger, which struggle with supply chain complexity, the proposed model employs unique key generation and multi-node key verification to authenticate distributed drugs. The system’s performance was evaluated using execution time, latency and throughput as key metrics. Results show an average execution time of 3500 milliseconds and a throughput of 55.6 transactions per second (TPS), outperforming current solutions. This improvement ensures that only genuine drugs reach end-users, enhances transparency, and significantly mitigates counterfeiting risks. By addressing critical challenges such as scalability and integration, the framework demonstrates blockchain’s transformative potential in securing pharmaceutical supply chains. The approach provides robust, real-time verification without reliance on centralized authorities, making it resilient to tampering and unauthorized access. Future enhancements will focus on integrating advanced cryptographic methods to strengthen data privacy, further improve performance, and scale the system for broader adoption across global pharmaceutical network.