CFP last date
01 May 2024
Reseach Article

Blockchain, Snap Tags, and QR Codes for Combating the Subtle Crime of Drug Counterfeiting

by Olakunle Anthony Ayodeji, Arome Junior Gabriel, Aderonke F. Thompson
Communications on Applied Electronics
Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA
Volume 7 - Number 38
Year of Publication: 2023
Authors: Olakunle Anthony Ayodeji, Arome Junior Gabriel, Aderonke F. Thompson
10.5120/cae2023652898

Olakunle Anthony Ayodeji, Arome Junior Gabriel, Aderonke F. Thompson . Blockchain, Snap Tags, and QR Codes for Combating the Subtle Crime of Drug Counterfeiting. Communications on Applied Electronics. 7, 38 ( Jun 2023), 16-25. DOI=10.5120/cae2023652898

@article{ 10.5120/cae2023652898,
author = { Olakunle Anthony Ayodeji, Arome Junior Gabriel, Aderonke F. Thompson },
title = { Blockchain, Snap Tags, and QR Codes for Combating the Subtle Crime of Drug Counterfeiting },
journal = { Communications on Applied Electronics },
issue_date = { Jun 2023 },
volume = { 7 },
number = { 38 },
month = { Jun },
year = { 2023 },
issn = { 2394-4714 },
pages = { 16-25 },
numpages = {9},
url = { https://www.caeaccess.org/archives/volume7/number38/890-2022652898/ },
doi = { 10.5120/cae2023652898 },
publisher = {Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA},
address = {New York, USA}
}
%0 Journal Article
%1 2023-09-04T20:03:00.802066+05:30
%A Olakunle Anthony Ayodeji
%A Arome Junior Gabriel
%A Aderonke F. Thompson
%T Blockchain, Snap Tags, and QR Codes for Combating the Subtle Crime of Drug Counterfeiting
%J Communications on Applied Electronics
%@ 2394-4714
%V 7
%N 38
%P 16-25
%D 2023
%I Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA
Abstract

One of the most serious crime or offenses against public health is the manufacture, distribution, and sale of fake medications and other medical supplies. The act of "deliberately and fraudulently mislabeling pharmaceuticals with respect to their identity or source" is known as drug counterfeiting. Both branded and generic products can be counterfeited, including those that have incorrect components, insufficient active substances, or none at all. Legitimate medications that have reached their expiration date may be included. In certain cases, low quality is noted along with a bogus expiration date. Treatment failure, end organ damage, toxicity, loss of confidence, illness escalation, and occasionally significant financial loss are all consequences and dangers of using counterfeit pharmaceuticals. The majority of current solutions either rely heavily on computational resources or are purely theoretical research. The deadly threat of drug counterfeiting needs to be reduced, and there is a need for a more secure, scalable, but simple to implement solution. Therefore, this study describes the creation of a system for detecting fake drugs that combines blockchain technology with QR codes and SnapTags. The proposed system performs admirably in comparison to some of the current related systems, even surpassing some of them.

References
  1. Briggers, (2018). What is medicine? Retrieved from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/medicine
  2. Hilmas, (2018). Understanding Medicines and What They Do (for Teens). Retrieved from https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/meds.html
  3. Food and Drug Administration Philippines. FDA warns vs fake products. Food and Drug Administration Philippine, (2017). Retrieved from: http://www.fda.gov.ph/announcement/474982-fda-warns-vs-fakeproducts. Archived at: http://www.webcitation.org/6wagexDaQ
  4. Bitchell (2017). Fake drugs are a major global problem, WHO reports URL: https://www.npr.org/sections/ goatsandsoda/2017/11/29/567229552/bad-drugs-are-a-major-global-problem-who-reports
  5. WHO, (2017). A study on the public health and socioeconomic impact of substandard and falsified medical products. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2017. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/medicines/regulation/ssffc/publications/se-study-sf/en
  6. Interpol. Interpol.int. (2018). The dangers of counterfeit medical products URL: https://www.interpol.int/Crime-areas/ Pharmaceutical-crime/The-dangers.
  7. Tucker J, Fischer T, Upjohn L, Mazzera, D., Kumar M. Unapproved Pharmaceutical Ingredients Included in Dietary Supplements Associated With US Food and Drug Administration Warnings. JAMA Netw Open. 2018 Oct 5;1(6):e183337. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.3337. Erratum in: JAMA Netw Open. 2018 Nov 2;1(7):e185765. PMID: 30646238; PMCID: PMC6324457.
  8. Bagozzi and Lindmeier (2017). 1 in 10 medical products in developing countries is substandard or falsified: WHO urges governments to take action. World Health Organization Media Center. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/substandard-falsified-products/en. Archived at: http://www.webcitation.org/6wagBrWKS
  9. Babar, (2017). Pharmaceutical Policy in Countries with Developing Healthcare Systems. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing; 2017.
  10. The Philippine Star. Philstar. (2017). Editorial - Fake drugs URL: http://www.philstar.com/opinion/2017/12/05/1765363/ editorial-fake-drugs.
  11. Sanghi A., Katakwar A., Arora A., Kaushik A. (2021). Detecting Fake Drugs using Blockchain. International Journal of Recent Technology and Engineering (IJRTE). Volume 10 Issue 1.
  12. Arumugam M., Deepa S. K., Sreekanth G.R., Arun G. (2021). Counterfeit Drugs Prevention using Blockchain Techniques. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering.
  13. Huang, Y., Wu, J. and Long, C., (2018). "Drugledger: A Practical Blockchain System for Drug Traceability and Regulation," 2018 IEEE International Conference on Internet of Things (iThings) and IEEE Green Computing and Communications (GreenCom) and IEEE Cyber, Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom) and IEEE Smart Data (SmartData), 2018, pp. 1137-1144, doi: 10.1109/Cybermatics_2018.2018.00206.
  14. Evans, J. D. (2019). Improving the Transparency of the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain through the Adoption of Quick Response (QR) Code, Internet of Things (IoT), and Blockchain Technology: One Result: Ending the Opioid Crisis. Pittsburgh Journal of Technology Law & Policy, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.5195/tlp.2019.227
  15. Kavita S., Kavita K., Deepak K. S., (2021). Blockchain for Supply Chain in Pharmaceutical Industry: An Approach to Counterfeit Drug Detection. In Convergence of Blockchain, AI, and IoT. CRC Press.
  16. Sylim P, Liu F, Marcelo A, Fontelo P. Blockchain Technology for Detecting Falsified and Substandard Drugs in Distribution: Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Intervention. JMIR Res Protoc. 2018 Sep 13;7(9):e10163. doi: 10.2196/10163. PMID: 30213780; PMCID: PMC6231844.
  17. Mohana, M., and Gabriel, O., Ern T. (2019). Implementation of Pharmaceutical Drug Traceability Using Blockchain Technology. INTI JOURNAL, 2019 (35). ISSN e2600-7920.
  18. Haq I., Muselemu O., (2018). Blockchain Technology in Pharmaceutical Industry to Prevent Counterfeit Drugs. International Journal of Computer Applications. 10.5120/ijca2018916579
  19. Pashkov V. and Soloviov O. (2019). Legal implementation of blockchain technology in pharmacy. 7th International Interdisciplinary Scientific Conference SOCIETY. HEALTH. WELFARE. Volume 68, 2019.
  20. Lokesh M.R., Suhail A. M. N., Saifulla K. (2021). Block Chain Based Supply Chain Management for Counterfeit Drugs in Pharmaceutical Industry International Journal of Scientific Research in Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology. DOI: 10.32628/CSEIT217122.
Index Terms

Computer Science
Information Sciences

Keywords

Drugs Blockchain Cloud Computing Information Security Agro-extension.