VeChain [VEN] weds DNV GL: “leveraging public blockchain technology to advance drug traceability”

On 3rd August, VeChain Foundation on their Medium blog reported that China has been facing a disastrous vaccine and drug scandal, where it was found that a Chinese pharmacy has been distributing counterfeit vaccines to Chinese school students.

Along with this, the blog post also revealed how VeChain’s traceability solution was the only blockchain project that was chosen and supported by the Shanghai government, as mentioned in their ‘Shanghai Municipality Product Traceability System Construction Demonstration Support Project’ 2017 report.

China’s Food and Drug Administration [CFDA] has begun investigating into the vaccine producer ‘Changchun Changsheng Biotechnology’ and has revoked their license for human rabies vaccines. Further, they have called for a withdraw of all their unutilized products in the market.

Many of these defective drugs have already been distributed in the streets and sold to many educational institutions because of a compulsory medical camp in China. Despite these drugs being called back, it is still unclear as to how these vaccines already have an impact on the students’ health.

In response to this, VeChain [VEN] has partnered with DNV GL, to launch a collaborated blockchain technology capable of tracking, monitoring and securing drugs in the market. The project’s research and development are taking place in the Shanghai province and will hit the streets of China by 2020.

The Medium Blog stated:

“DNV GL and VeChain have taken immense strides in advancing medical standards and security in China. The blockchain solutions engineered by DNV GL and VeChain will soon span the globe, as the products and solutions rolled out for China’s government and enterprises are only the initial components of a much larger plan.”

In a release by VeChain, it was shown that the blockchain’s vaccine traceability program, when integrated with high-tech IoT devices, could track and record all the information with regard to the drug’s production and distribution. This also composes of getting these drugs from producers, storage vendors, hospitals and cold-chain distribution areas.

While guaranteeing the reliability of the source, it also neutralizes any future risks in the process and enables the vaccine records to be unchanging and permanent.

A Twitterati replied to this, saying:

“Glad to see the Chinese market has the vision to apply blockchain technology to the pharmaceutical industry!”

A crypto-enthusiast on Twitter states:

“This is fantastic. Cold chain logistics is an enormous market and will only become larger along with regulations. Next step is getting this standard adopted by UNICEF and applied to all vaccine produced by India, France, Belgium etc. Viva VeChain $VET $VEN $BTC $ETH #UNICEF”