The pharmaceutical industry or big pharma is no doubt a multi-billion-dollar industry. Whilst extremely profitable, pharmaceutical companies have a long-standing history of fraud cases often resulting in billion-dollar payout settlements. These cases generally stem from purported illegal marketing strategies and the company’s failure to report safety data. As a result, trust remains to be an issue, widening the gap between pharmaceutical companies and its consumers.
Veridat, a company that uses Bitcoin blockchain technology, offers a solution to the problem. It describes itself as a TaaS or Trust as a Service for data integrity. Speaking to Natalie Mason on this week’s CoinGeek Conversations, Veridat Managing Director Phillip Runyan says the company allows auditors to access information on clinical trials, on a transaction to transaction basis. This altogether eliminates the likelihood of overlooking or dismissing valuable data pertinent to the general public.
“There is massive value to this [Veridat]” Phillip says. “It’s not that they’re worried about somebody coming in and committing fraud, it’s really more of, we have this service that allows us to back up a ton of information… they also have all the benefits of showing this immutable chain of custody, immutable data ledger.”
Natalie and Phillip also discussed companies that misled its consumers through its falsified marketing campaigns. For instance, Johnson and Johnson spent years in litigation over its opioid marketing practices culminating with a US$4 billion settlement offer. As Phillip explains, an incident as such would result in someone taking the fall or getting fired. The company however, stays intact moving along with the same practices. Phillip sees a potential to change the system. “With billions of dollars at stake there are people who functions as bad actors, but as we’ve seen with our Pharma partner, it’s less about being a bad actor, it’s about streamlining audit processes.”
The idea of using blockchain technology in big pharma is currently being studied by the FDA and industry professionals who operate in data integrity, as well as consultants who work for the contract research organizations of pharmaceutical companies. Veridat has managed to move the conversation from “Why would I” to “Why wouldn’t I?”
With COVID-19 vaccines rolling out in countries worldwide, the service offered by Veridat if utilized, can prove to be beneficial to both big pharma and its consumers. With its use of Bitcoin SV blockchain technology, Phillip explains every transaction is verified against a public blockchain while reaping the benefits of its massive scaling capability and secured network. So, the question reverts back to “Why wouldn’t I?” The answer is simple. Phillip attests, BSV tech is cost effective, fast, scalable and secured. “It’s an insurance policy that keeps on giving.”
Hear the whole of Phillip Runyan’s interview in this week’s CoinGeek Conversations podcast or catch up with other recent episodes:
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