Blockchain-Based Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Authentication

Abstract

The increasing prevalence of counterfeit medicines has become a critical global healthcare challenge, threatening patient safety, reducing public trust, and causing significant economic losses. Although blockchain technology has emerged as a promising solution for pharmaceutical supply chain traceability, existing implementations primarily emphasize immutable record keeping while providing limited support for intelligent authenticity verification across heterogeneous stakeholders. This study identifies the research gap of adaptive trust-aware pharmaceutical authentication integrating blockchain with artificial intelligence for anomaly detection. A decentralized framework is proposed in which blockchain ensures tamper-resistant transaction recording while machine learning identifies suspicious supply chain activities in real time. Smart contracts automate product verification, ownership transfer, and compliance validation throughout manufacturing, distribution, and retail processes. The proposed framework is designed to improve transparency, reduce counterfeit circulation, and enhance regulatory oversight without compromising data integrity. Recent developments in blockchain interoperability, AI-assisted fraud detection, and pharmaceutical digitization motivate this research. The study contributes a scalable architecture that strengthens medicine authentication and supports secure digital healthcare ecosystems