Ambrosus, Trek Therapeutics to develop blockchain-powered method in pharmaceutical manufacturing

Ambrosus, a blockchain-based ecosystem for the supply chain, has partnered with Trek Therapeutics, PBC (Trek) to apply integrated sensors coupled with blockchain-based technology to pharmaceutical drug manufacturing.

Combining high-tech sensors, blockchain, and powered by smart contracts, Ambrosus is building one of the world’s first publicly verifiable, community-driven ecosystems to ensure the quality, safety and origins of essential products, such as medicine, food and commodities. As part of the collaboration, Ambrosus will conduct pilot projects with Trek to monitor the quality, safety and integrity of all stages of the pharmaceutical manufacturing process.

Trek co-founder and CEO Dr. Ann Kwong said, "Currently the pharmaceutical manufacturing process is highly regulated in an extremely labour-intensive and expensive manner. We hope to partner with Ambrosus to create a continuous monitoring and tracking system that will be less labour intensive, less expensive, and more transparent with a stake in quality pharmaceutical manufacturing.

"Patients currently have no way to ascertain the quality of medicine. Trek believes it is important to demonstrate to patients that while our drugs are affordable, they’re also of the highest quality," Dr Kwong added.

Ambrosus co-founder and CEO Angel Versetti said, "Following the successful implementation of the Ambrosus protocol in global food supply chains, we are delighted to now apply our blockchain protocol to help ensure the quality of another vitally important product – pharmaceuticals."

Trek Therapeutics, PBC is a privately held, public-benefit corporation developing treatments for serious infections. Its mission is to provide cost-effective, affordable, and accessible medicines to treat patients that suffer from infectious diseases and commercialize them for global populations.

As part of the pilot projects, Ambrosus’s protocol will work to track the entire manufacturing chain from the primary chemical starting materials through multiple steps of synthesis, purification, and verification of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API); followed by formulation of the API into drug product; packaging, labelling, storage, and shipping to clinical trial sites.