Switzerland’s national postal service Swiss Post will integrate a blockchain-based solution developed by industry startup Modum in deliveries of pharma shipments and other temperature-sensitive products.

Modrum, a Zurich-based Swiss blockchain developer of sensors that use blockchain smart contracts and IoT technologies, has revealed details of an ongoing partnership with Swiss Post that has seen several initial successful pilots of temperature-monitored shipments delivered.

https://t.co/CwMCTE3cjF AG announces its cooperation with Swiss Post to deliver an industry-leading, temperature-monitoring solution that enables regulatory compliance for shipments containing medicinal and other temperature-sensitive products. https://t.co/eY4qOz2viJ — Swiss Post (@swisspost) April 24, 2018

With over $8 billion in revenues (2016) and the country’s second-largest employer, Swiss Post has been collaborating with Modum since summer 2017, the startup revealed in an announcement on Monday. The two companies will work toward a “deeper integration” of the startup’s temperature-logging devices within the Swiss Post’s track-and-trace system.

‘The solution will provide players in the pharma sector with a reliable and scalable process for monitoring the state of goods and demonstrating legal compliance to auditors,’ Modum said. ‘The fully wireless and digital, the blockchain-based data-management solution also provides new levels of data insight and data handling.’

Modum claims to offer a “passive monitoring solution” for the pharma industry with sensors that continually monitor environmental conditions and verifies information gathered against smart contracts on a blockchain to validate pre-determined requirements.

Modum adds that its pharma clientele currently uses the startup’s smart contracts to record temperature thresholds for shipments. ‘If temperatures are recorded outside of these thresholds, a notification is sent to the sender and receiver,” Modum says, adding that its sensors have so far measured over 500,000 data points during its pilots.

Modum CEO Simon Dössegger added:

Our collaboration with Swiss Post is the starting point for demonstrating our solution’s efficacy over conventional offerings in the market.

The blockchain-powered solution, if successfully deployed, would ease the regulatory burden on the pharma industry following recently mandated rules. Under new EU-wide regulations, pharma companies are required to ensure that temperature conditions are maintained within acceptable limits during transport, with proof to show that the quality of shipped medicines aren’t compromised.

Modum adds it will replicate this model for major European logistics providers after successfully demonstrating the technology with Swiss Post.

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