Privacy Preserving Pharmaceutical Drug Tracking for Consumers using Blockchain

Abstract

Ensuring the authenticity and safety of pharmaceutical drugs is a critical challenge in today’s healthcare system, where counterfeit medicines and lack of transparency can pose serious risks to consumers. This project presents a privacy-preserving pharmaceutical drug tracking system using blockchain technology, designed to enhance trust, security, and traceability across the supply chain. The system integrates blockchain with modern technologies such as IoT and cloud computing to monitor drug movement from manufacturers to end users in a secure and tamper-proof manner. Each transaction is recorded as an immutable block, ensuring that data cannot be altered or manipulated, thereby preventing the circulation of counterfeit drugs. The proposed system tracks key information such as drug origin, manufacturing details, storage conditions, and distribution history, while maintaining user privacy through secure cryptographic mechanisms. Smart contracts are used to automate verification processes and ensure that only authorized participants can access or update the data. Additionally, the system enables real-time monitoring and efficient inventory management, allowing stakeholders to make informed decisions and respond quickly to potential issues. A key advantage of this approach is its ability to provide consumers with transparent and verifiable information about the medicines they purchase, improving confidence and safety. By combining decentralization, security, and automation, the system minimizes fraud, enhances accountability, and streamlines operations within the pharmaceutical supply chain. Overall, this project demonstrates how blockchain technology can be effectively utilized to create a reliable, secure, and consumer-centric drug tracking solution, ultimately contributing to improved public health outcomes and trust in the healthcare ecosystem.

Introduction

The text presents a Privacy-Preserving Pharmaceutical Drug Tracking System Using Blockchain, designed to improve medicine safety, transparency, and traceability throughout the pharmaceutical supply chain. Counterfeit and substandard medicines pose serious risks to public health, while traditional centralized tracking systems can be vulnerable to data manipulation, delays, and limited transparency. The proposed system addresses these challenges by integrating blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), cloud storage, and smart contracts.

The system follows a three-layer architecture:

• Presentation Layer: A web-based frontend developed using HTML and JavaScript enables manufacturers, distributors, administrators, and consumers to interact with the platform, manage drug information, track product movement, and verify medicine authenticity.

• Application Layer: Integrates blockchain functionality through Web3 libraries and backend logic. Smart contracts validate transactions, automate verification, and restrict updates to authorized participants. IoT integration supports monitoring drug storage conditions, including temperature and humidity.

• Data Layer: Uses blockchain to maintain secure, tamper-resistant transaction records and cloud-based storage for supplementary information, logs, and reports. Encryption and access controls help protect sensitive data.

The proposed workflow begins with user registration and the entry of pharmaceutical product information by manufacturers. As medicines move through the supply chain, authorized participants record updates about their movement and status. These transactions create a traceable history containing information such as drug origin, manufacturing details, distribution stages, and storage conditions. Consumers can scan or enter product information to verify authenticity and review its supply chain journey.

The literature review highlights the limitations of traditional drug tracking methods and discusses how blockchain provides decentralized record-keeping, IoT enables real-time storage monitoring, and smart contracts automate transaction validation. Privacy-preserving mechanisms, such as encryption and permissioned blockchain networks, further support secure information sharing. However, challenges involving scalability, implementation costs, and integration with existing infrastructure remain.

The reported implementation and testing indicate that the system successfully records and verifies drug-related transactions across different supply chain stages. Its web interface includes a home page, an administrative portal, and a manufacturer dashboard. The manufacturer dashboard provides operational information such as production lines, total drugs manufactured, quality compliance, batch failures, and recent activities.

Conclusion

This project presents a practical and user-friendly system for privacy preserving pharmaceutical drug tracking using blockchain technology. The system ensures secure and transparent monitoring of drugs across the supply chain by recording every transaction in an immutable and decentralized manner. By enabling stakeholders to update and verify product details in real time, the platform simplifies the process of drug tracking and enhances trust among all participants. In addition to tracking, the system provides verification features that allow consumers to check the authenticity and origin of medicines, helping prevent the use of counterfeit drugs. The integration of blockchain, smart contracts, and web-based interfaces makes the system efficient and easy to use. Although it does not replace regulatory authorities, it acts as a supportive tool that improves accountability and transparency. Overall, the project demonstrates how blockchain technology can be effectively applied to strengthen pharmaceutical supply chains and ensure consumer safety.

References

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Copyright

Copyright © 2026 Shlok Jadhav, Dhrup Patil, Aayut Rohela, Prof. Sonali Karthik. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.