03 June 2019 14:22, UTC

The US retail giant Walmart has joined MediLedger, a consortium developing a blockchain for tracking the provenance of pharmaceuticals.

“Health and wellness” category accounted for $35 bln of Walmart’s U.S. sales in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, or 10% of the total, according to the company’s annual report. This is a new step from Walmart to the implementation of blockchain technologies in its business processes. As it is known, the retailer is a participant of the IBM Food Trust — fresh products tracking system built on the Hyperledger Fabric platform.

MediLedger’s members already include pharmaceutical manufacturers such as Pfizer and the three largest pharmaceutical wholesalers, McKesson, AmerisourceBergen, and Cardinal Health. The consortium is spearheaded by San Francisco-based blockchain firm Chronicled, which closed a $16 mln funding round earlier this year.

MediLedger prepares to start a pilot project with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in early June. The agency is testing different approaches to creating an interoperable, digitized system for tracking and verifying prescription drugs.

Image courtesy of Cryptolinenews

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