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Pharma supply chain turns to blockchain for greater traceability, compliance & reduced counterfeits
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Nandita Vijayasimha, Bengaluru
June 13 , 2025
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Pharma supply chain adopts blockchain to boost traceability, ensure DSCSA compliance, reduce counterfeits and fraud. More pharma companies are using blockchain serialization to combat the global counterfeit drug market, which poses serious health and economic risks. Also, smart contracts are increasingly used in pharma manufacturing to automate compliance, payments, supplier management, reduce errors, and improve efficiency.
According to Dr. Purav Gandhi, CEO and founder, Healthark Insights, in pharma manufacturing too blockchain combined with AI and IoT is optimizing production, ensuring proper storage, and enhancing quality while reducing waste. We are seeing that as demand for personalized medicine rises, blockchain allows patients to control access to their decentralized health records, and enable healthcare providers to use this data for creating customized treatment plans.
Also, healthcare has become a prime target for cyberattacks, experiencing some of the largest data breaches ever. A variety of cyberattack techniques result in data breaches, complicating efforts to maintain security and meet compliance requirements. These cover ransomware which is a specific type of malware encrypts data and halts access until payment. These attacks can freeze critical systems, lock up valuable research, and stop production lines. Over the past five years, ransomware incidents in healthcare have surged by 264%.
Specifically, healthcare data breaches have risen from approximately 75 million in 2022 to 300 million in 2024. This represents a staggering 300% increase in over just two years. Furthermore, as of April 2025, around 20.9 million new cases have already been reported, indicating that the upward trend continues, he added.
Cybercriminals use deceptive communications to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information or performing malicious actions. Phishing is broad, while spear phishing is highly targeted. Last year, 88% of healthcare workers opened phishing emails and 90% of all cyberattacks were phishing scams.
Security weaknesses in external companies with access to healthcare systems can risk patient information and operations. In 2023, 58% of the 77.3 million individuals affected by data breaches were impacted due to attacks on third-party providers which is a 287% increase from 2022. Insider threats account for 58% of healthcare data breaches, he said.
Noting that blockchain in healthcare is evolving rapidly, offering new solutions for data security, patient privacy, interoperability, and supply chain transparency, Dr Gandhi said that this decentralized digital ledger records information in a secure, transparent, and tamper-proof manner. The blockchain healthcare market, valued at $1.19 billion in 2021, is anticipated to reach $126 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 68.1% from 2022 to 2030.
All said, blockchain is transforming healthcare as improvement in data security by storing information across a decentralized network, makes it much harder for hackers to compromise the system. It is helping real-time tracking of medical goods from manufacturer to end-user, combating counterfeit drugs and ensuring product authenticity. It supports regulatory compliance with tamper-proof audit trail, helping organizations meet standards like HIPAA. Healthcare challenges are addressed by securing data and enabling interoperability, thus creating a foundation of a more transparent and efficient digital health ecosystem, said Dr Gandhi.
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