![Pharmacist scanning medicine in a store room](https://www.mmu.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/page_header_half/public/2021-07/Preventing-prescription-drugs-counterfeiting.jpg?h=bb941b98&itok=ZMnH17Gt)
Research: Preventing prescription drug counterfeiting
Applying blockchain and internet of things technology to verify products in medical supply chains.
Research summary
Research summary
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2017 to 2020
This knowledge transfer partnership with information security specialists Kindus addressed prescription drug counterfeiting in medical supply chains.
According to the United Nations, 500,000 people die from malaria and 70,000 from child pneumonia due to fake medicines each year. These medicines can be disguised as authentic, but may contain ingredients that are toxic or in the wrong dosage.
Alongside Kindus, we created Serialogical - a joint enterprise that designs and develops serialisation software for pharmaceutical companies.
Our partnership developed an advanced track-and-trace system that combines cryptographic, blockchain and internet of things (IoT) technologies. It can:
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authenticate legitimate supply chain members
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verify the source of a product
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apply data integrity checks to prevent unauthorised duplication or manipulation of a product’s description
The solution is the first to present a blockchain application method to IoT, and uses new approaches to provide cryptographic keys to products during manufacturing. It moves beyond the simple tracking and tracing of finished consumer products to monitoring raw materials, semi-finished products, and other supply chain sections to provide immutable verification.
To prevent fake or sub-standard medicines in the supply chain, pharmaceutical wholesalers must comply with the Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD).
In 2018, in response to warnings that around 1,500 UK companies were failing to comply with the FMD, Serialogical made its basic system free, and now has more than 170 corporate UK subscribers.
![Radio antenna dishes of the Very Large Array radio telescope near Socorro, New Mexico](https://www.mmu.ac.uk/sites/default/files/styles/16_9_two_column/public/2020-11/Radar%20dish_0.jpg?h=43ac1e2e&itok=nIiXmOR-)
Protecting computer systems from attack
Prof Mohammad Hammoudeh explains how his cyber security research is helping to defend the world's networked computer systems, programmes and devices from infiltration and attack.Research outputs
Academic papers
- Jabbar, S, Lloyd, H, Hammoudeh, M, Adebisi, B and Raza, U (2020) Blockchain‑enabled supply chain – analysis, challenges, and future directions Multimedia Systems, pp 1–31
- Walker‑Roberts, S, Hammoudeh, M, Aldabbas, O, Aydin, M and Dehghantanha, A (2019) Threats on the horizon: understanding security threats in the era of cyber‑physical systems The Journal of Supercomputing
- Walker‑Roberts, S, Hammoudeh, M, and Dehghantanha, A (2018) A systematic review of the availability and efficacy of countermeasures to internal threats in healthcare critical infrastructure IEEE Access, 6, pp 25167–25177
Research team
Research team
Lead researcher
Co-researchers
Collaborating with:
Funding
With funding from
![Innovate UK](/sites/default/files/styles/logo_scalable/public/2021-07/Innovate%20UK.png?itok=FQKlrfiS)
Innovate UK
Contact
Contact us
For general enquiries about this project and our Smart and Secure Infrastructure research theme, you can contact Prof Mohammad Hammoudeh.