Informatics
Blockchain technology in drug discovery: use-cases in R&D
There is no doubt that the interest and hype around blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT) builds daily. The explosion of articles and books recently is testament to this. But what is a blockchain and how might DLT impact healthcare, Pharma and R&D?
By Dr Richard Shute R
unning through the profusion of publica- tions on blockchain technology in the tra- ditional press1, online2 and via social
media3, there is a thread that speculates on how DLT will disrupt most, if not all, industries4 – building out from FinTech and bitcoin5, which is where blockchain first started, to industries as diverse as diamonds, music and real estate6. But what is a blockchain? For the sake of this article, which is focused on what you can do with the tech- nology, ie the use-cases, rather than the ‘nuts and
bolts’ of what the technology is, a good, relatively digestible definition or description is as follows7:
“A blockchain is a digital, distributed transaction ledger, with identical copies maintained on multi- ple computer systems controlled by different enti- ties. Anyone participating in a blockchain can review the entries in it; users can update the blockchain only by consensus of a majority of par- ticipants. Once entered into a blockchain, informa- tion can never be erased; ideally, a blockchain con- tains an accurate and verifiable record of every transaction ever made.”
Source: Pill background
https://pixabay.com/en/addiction-antibiotic-capsule-care-71576/ Bitcoin logo
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/Bitcoin.svg/2000px-Bitcoin.svg.png
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Throughout these articles, one industry rou- tinely appears listed as ripe for disruption by DLT – healthcare8. Indeed, a recent article has identi- fied 10 new blockchain-based healthcare start- ups9; there are many more! But while there are 10, 20, 100 or more would-be blockchain start- ups rushing to get their Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs)10 out there so that they can put their killer idea into practise, it would seem sensible to at least try to identify the sweet-spots within any industry, and particularly healthcare, where blockchain technology might actually make a dif- ference. To that end there have been published a few more sober and hype-reduced articles on the use-cases of DLT that might make a real differ- ence to industry11.
Drug Discovery World Fall 2017
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