How Blockchain Could End The Reign of Counterfeit Drugs
Fake products are everywhere — from medicines to car parts — and they cost money and sometimes lives. Blockchain can’t fix the whole problem, but by making verification simple, it can help people feel sure about what they are buying.
The Gist
Counterfeiting has evolved into a $3 trillion global market, posing significant safety risks beyond mere financial losses.
- India is a major exporter of counterfeit goods, affecting various industries.
- Traditional anti-counterfeiting measures like holograms are easily replicated.
- Blockchain technology offers a secure solution for tracking product authenticity through a tamper-proof ledger.
We’ve all seen fakes around us. A shoe that looks a little too much like an original from a famous brand, a mobile charger that feels flimsy, or even medicines that don’t seem right. Most probably cheap copies.
The problem is, these aren’t small annoyances anymore. Counterfeits are a $3 trillion global market, and unfortunately, India is one of the big exporters.
The problem has become so big that it's no longer only about the loss of business for companies; it has now become a safety issue as well. A fake pill or a faulty car part can put lives at risk.
Brands have tried holograms, stickers, and barcodes. The trouble is, counterfeiters copy them easily. So the problem just keeps coming back.
What’s really needed is a way to make fakes harder to pass off, and to give the common man a simple way to check if what they’re buying is genuine.
One easy way to do that would be to bring the supply-chain management on blockchain.
The Offer
Blockchain is naturally associated with cryptos. But in reality, it’s much more versatile. What sets it apart from most other technological tools is the way it's built and the kind of security it offers.
One of its key features is that it doesn't allow a record to be modified. Simply speaking, it's like a diary where you can make entries without worrying that someone could change it, or worse, delete it.
There is another layer of security here. Inste...
We’ve all seen fakes around us. A shoe that looks a little too much like an original from a famous brand, a mobile charger that feels flimsy, or even medicines that don’t seem right. Most probably cheap copies.
The problem is, these aren’t small annoyances anymore. Counterfeits are a $3 trillion global market, and unfortunately, India is one of the big exporters.
The problem has become so big that it's no longer only about the loss of business for companies; it has now become a safety issue as well. A fake pill or a faulty car part can put lives at risk.
Brands have tried holograms, stickers, and barcodes. The trouble is, counterfeiters copy them easily. So the problem just keeps coming back.
What’s really needed is a way to make fakes harder to pass off, and to give the common man a simple way to check if what they’re buying is genuine.
One easy way to do that would be to bring the supply-chain management on blockchain.
The Offer
Blockchain is naturally associated with cryptos. But in reality, it’s much more versatile. What sets it apart from most other technological tools is the way it's built and the kind of security it offers.
One of its key features is that it doesn't allow a record to be modified. Simply speaking, it's like a diary where you can make entries without worrying that someone could change it, or worse, delete it.
There is another layer of security here. Instead of one person keeping the diary, it’s shared across many hands. So no single person can quietly change the story or write a different story. That’s powerful when it comes to dealing with counterfeits.
As AVRO CEO Sumit Goswami, who builds anti-fake tech, recently told The Core: “Blockchain ultimately is nothing but a database, which cannot be tampered with, because it is in a distributed ledger form.”
This technology helps in two ways. One, you can track a product, right from the source of its raw material to the warehouses it’s been to.
And two, it makes sure you can know for sure whether the final product in your hand is authentic or not. On the packet is a special code linked to the blockchain. You just need to scan it using your phone and get the results instantly.
That ease of verification matters. Goswami said: “If I tell a consumer they need to go through several steps [to authenticate a product], no one will bother.”
He’s right. Any complication in the verification process would defeat the purpose of the whole exercise. People won’t jump through hoops. They’ll scan only if it’s as quick as a QR code for payments.
Final Words
Medicines might be the most urgent case as far as dealing with fakes is concerned, but the problem is not restricted to pharma. It's affecting several other industries as well.
Let’s take car recalls. Thousands of vehicles are pulled back because of one dodgy part, causing millions of dollars in losses to the company. Or FMCG brands losing revenue to fake soaps and shampoos. Or luxury goods constantly fighting off knock-offs.
In all of these, blockchain could make their supply chain more secure and reassure customers that what they’re holding is the real deal. Or not.
So maybe the real promise of blockchain isn’t crypto alone. It’s trust. Trust that what we buy is what it claims to be.
The sooner companies decide to adopt it as part of their daily business, the easier it'll be for them to fight counterfeit.
This series is brought to you in partnership with Algorand.
