Fighting the fakes: Working together to build a more secure and transparent pharmaceutical supply chain

Counterfeit medicines were already a growing blight on public health systems. The production of false over-the-counter pills, drugs and even vaccines have seen a consistent upwards spike, creating adverse effects on unsuspecting users and eroding society’s trust in healthcare.

Post-pandemic, economic distress, the proliferation of misinformation running rampant on online channels and the disruption of access to essential medicines and health products due to geopolitical headwinds and diverging supply chains have only further exacerbated this trend. However, the effects of pharmaceutical crime are more keenly felt in underdeveloped nations. According to the World Health Organisation, 1 in 10 of medical products circulating in low- and middle-income countries are substandard or falsified.

With illicit medicines proving to be a growing, global threat, stronger counter measures from manufacturers and distributors are critical if the world’s healthcare systems and key industry players want to ensure that populations across the globe, including those in underserved regions, can continue to access genuine, high-quality products amidst evolving healthcare needs.

The tracking and tracing of pharmaceutical crime is a delicate issue that requires the collaboration of multiple stakeholders, often in various geographies. Global crime control organisation Interpol has cited that several methods are employed by authorities to reduce the risk of counterfeit drugs – these include multi-agency task forces to improve cooperation between authorities, regulatory bodies and the private sector. However, these can be enhanced through the use of innovative technologies, and industry-wide education efforts.

Promoting enhanced traceability and transparency across with digital solutions

Greater investment in public-private partnerships is essential to mitigating the impact counterfeit drugs have on public health. While it is paramount that producers leverage modern tools to improve the tracking and tracing of their products, governments and authorities also need to create a favourable environment that allows pharmaceutical companies and distributors to continue to meet local and international standards.

Monitoring and flagging of falsified products, and prompt information-sharing among industry players through digital means will help to ensure that the sector remains vigilant against such threats. Technology such as blockchain can help to alleviate such risks to the pharmaceutical supply chain by providing timely data that is authentic, secure and invariable. Goods can be tracked at every step of the pharmaceutical life cycle from the manufacturer to the pharmacy. This reduces the opportunities for regulatory oversight and creates a more transparent and therefore safer system when transporting and delivering pharmaceutical products.

Solutions such as eZTracker, Zuellig Pharma’s first production-grade supply chain traceability solution for pharmaceutical companies, is one such example. eZTracker enables users to successfully combat counterfeits through key features such as real-time verification via mobile app access with Track & Trace functions from plant to patient. It also supports tamperproof recording and verification of transactions through a distributed blockchain ledger, enabling distributors and end-users to ensure that all product received is authentic and genuine.

With multi-cloud, vendor-agnostic infrastructure and strong data and analytics dashboards, we have helped to track and flag more than US$27 million worth of illicit goods through the help of more than 126,000 active mobile users.

Ensuring continued accessibility to genuine, high-quality healthcare products through closer cross-sector collaboration

According to the WHO, substandard and falsified medical products are likely to reach patients where there is limited access to high quality and safe medical products, poor governance and weak technical capacity.

Strong partnerships between manufacturers, regulatory bodies, international organisations and governments can help to circumvent such issues, by ensuring that healthcare remains accessible to patients amidst turbulent times, such as when transportation and trade grind to a standstill during lockdowns, or when supply chains come under threat due to political turmoil.

During the pandemic, Zuellig Pharma’s strong existing partnerships with manufacturers, governments, regulatory bodies, international organisations and the private sector enabled us to accelerate COVID-19 vaccination roll-outs, whilst maintaining access to healthcare. We supported access to over 150M COVID-19 vaccine doses across Asia, with more than half comprising of mRNA vaccines requiring advanced handling and storage capabilities, through our work with organisations such as the Philippines Air Force and Coast Guard and Taiwan’s military.

Zuellig Pharma also works closely with industry organisations and law enforcement agencies such as the Pharmaceutical Security Institute (PSI), Interpol and the United States Department of Homeland Security to actively combat the proliferation of counterfeit and unapproved pharmaceuticals. For example, cross-sector collaboration with large e-Commerce players and payment merchants through the former’s E-commerce Alliance for a Socially Responsible Ecosystem (ECARE) initiative have helped to address pharmaceutical crime on e-Commerce platforms.

However, fostering ties between the public and private sector cannot only come during times of crisis. There needs to be a consistent, proactive effort to build relationships even during periods of prosperity and growth.

Empowering underdeveloped regions with the knowledge and expertise to build supply chain resilience and combat counterfeit goods

With low to middle income markets disproportionately impacted by pharmaceutical crime, it is also essential that industry leaders empower distributors and public health personnel with the right expertise to succeed independently.

Regular collaboration to enhance partnerships and knowledge sharing can make a great difference in ensuring that healthcare access remains consistent and undisrupted for populations in underdeveloped markets even during periods of uncertainty and ambiguity.

As part of our work in furthering supply chain expertise and immunisation and health outcomes, we regularly collaborate with the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Wholesalers (IFPW) Foundation to improve the availability of medicines to patients across the globe. Through the Strategic Training Executive Programme (STEP), Zuellig Pharma is able to lend its expertise towards strengthening the management and leadership capacity of supply chain leaders in developing nations through mentorship and innovative change management processes.

Zuellig Pharma has also joined the PharmaLedger Association to contribute efforts towards building a Digital Trust Ecosystem in Healthcare (DTE-H), to accelerate innovation and adoption of digital healthcare solutions in a patient-centric and industry-enabling way.

Looking towards the future

As the world continues to grapple with the need to make healthcare more accessible, affordable and sustainable, pharmaceutical crime and falsified goods will continue to pose a growing threat to the efforts of both public and private industry players.

Both sectors must work together in tandem to manage the circulation of illicit products in the supply chain, and also continue to innovate and leverage technology to manage the risks posed to the access to healthcare. With collaborative, strategic and harmonised efforts between producers, distributors, regulators and public health systems, fighting the fakes no longer seems like an uphill task.