Chronicled was only founded seven years ago, in 2014, but is now at the center of an initiative to put order and bring back confidence in an industry generating more than 490 billion dollars in revenues each year: the Pharmaceutical industry.
The DSCSA has a changing moment for Chronicled
The story of Chronicled started even before the company was founded…with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA). This Law gave up to 2023 to the Healthcare Industry to be in a position to trace every single unit in the Pharmaceutical supply chain within an interoperable system.
The task appeared as utopic at the time. Still, the Pharmaceutical supply chain actors had to figure out a way and develop the technology to allow proper tracking and identification of the drugs.
The main goal behind this Law was to limit the number of counterfeit healthcare products and devices and bring some order to an industry known for its complexity, voracious rivalry, and its culture engrained in secrecy and Confidential Disclosure Agreements.
The solution for securely tracking products throughout the entire chain from the pharmaceutical manufacturers to the pharmacists and even the patients is to rely on blockchain technology.
This is the blockchain-powered Mediledger network Chronicled is in charge of developing and maintaining.
The Mediledger Network was founded in 2019 by Life sciences industry leaders, including some of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies and wholesalers, such as Pfizer, Cardinal Health, or AmerisourceBergen.
Chronicled CEO is no stranger to the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain as Susanne Somerville was the former VP Supply Chain of Genentech, a part of the Mediledger Network.
Chronicled Responsibilities for Mediledger
As the network custodian, Chronicled is in charge of:
- Developing the technological solution supporting the Network,
- Providing support and ongoing improvement to the Network,
- Authenticating new participants willing to join the Network
To date, two products have been developed:
- Contracts and Chargebacks
- Products Verification
Contracts and Chargebacks
A Contract or a chargeback can be a big problem for the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain, including many actors. However, the blockchain technology developed by Chronicled allows to fix three major pain points:
- Roster Management
- Contract communication
- Claim adjudication
By integrating data from various sources (HIBCC, DEA, and HRSA), the GPO roasters are always synchronized and update between the different participants. The reduction in manual entry, automation around contract eligibility, and alignment of the trading partners on GPO rosters and industry identifiers) leads to a reduction in disputes and errors.
Contracts are included and updated in the blockchain network resulting in an automated contract alignment between the different partners. With automatization and real-time alignment comes a reduction of claims as all partners are also on the same page.
For claim adjudication, errors are caught right at the source, which results in automatic resubmission and realignment with always the security of price accuracy.
Product Verification
For Pharmaceutical wholesalers, product verification was responsible for a considerable amount of work and potential delays. Before being resold, the product’s authenticity needed to be checked by reconciling the serial number with the status.
The blockchain-powered solution allows checking for the legitimacy of the resalable product as instructed under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act.
A simple scan of the product barcode will verify the Global Trade Item Number (GTIN), serial number, lot number, and expiration date.
Even more, in the case of merging or acquisition of a manufacturer, the GITN is updated and populated through all the nodes of the decentralized blockchain networks.
To wrap up
In a few years, Chronicled has succeeded in developing a tailor-made solution for the Pharmaceutical industry that complies with the strict regulatory and legal requirements.
The company is a perfect example that combining talents from various backgrounds and setting a common goal can significantly disrupt how various actors interact in a complex system.
