Title: A systematic literature review on pharmaceutical supply chain: research gaps and future opportunities

Authors: Abeer Mirdad; Farookh Khadeer Hussain; Omar Khadeer Hussain

Addresses: School of Computer Science, Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute (AAII), Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia ' School of Computer Science, Australian Artificial Intelligence Institute (AAII), Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, 15 Broadway, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia ' School of Business, University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia

Abstract: Recently, blockchain has increasingly been used in several sectors as the technological underpinning for providing a secure and reliable environment. It has been used in a few sectors for provenance of high-value products. In this paper, we focus on the pharmaceutical sector in which the need for drug provenance is crucial due to counterfeiting and for finding efficient ways to handle drug waste. The focus on this paper is two-fold. The first contribution is to review the existing literature critically and systematically on blockchain use in the pharmaceutical sector. We identify four crucial factors that are critical in the pharmaceutical sector. Subsequently, we systematically review the existing literature on blockchain use in the pharmaceutical sector. The second contribution is based on the analysis of the existing literature, we identify key research gaps on blockchain use in the pharmaceutical sector. Finally, an intelligent platform is proposed to address the identified gaps.

Keywords: literature review; blockchain; pharmaceutical supply chain research challenges.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWGS.2023.131243

International Journal of Web and Grid Services, 2023 Vol.19 No.2, pp.233 - 258

Received: 18 Apr 2022
Received in revised form: 07 Dec 2022
Accepted: 27 Dec 2022
Published online: 01 Jun 2023 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article