TruTrace Teams Up With Pharma Centra On Blockchain Ecosystem For Medical Cannabis

Blockchain innovator TruTrace Technologies TTT TTTSF agreed to support the development of an ecosystem focused on medical cannabis.

“As cannabis gains acceptance as a useful component of therapies to treat serious medical conditions, it is critical to ensure that all products used for patient care are safe and consistent,” TruTrace CEO Robert Galarza stated.

Blockchain, the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies, allows supply chain managers to keep track of products and store data. For example, International Business Machines Corp. IBM partnered with Walmart to wield blockchain technology as a means of bringing transparency and efficiency to food supply chains.

For this cannabis initiative, TruTrace is teaming up with CannabisBPO, a subsidiary of PharmaCentra LLC.

Why It Matters: “This partnership is an important step toward making that a reality because there will be repeatable, verifiable processes for measuring the efficacy of cannabis-derived compounds that the entire biopharma industry can use to improve the quality of the therapies that are available to people who need them," Galarza added.

PharmaCentra and CannabisBPO CEO Dan Berman explained how differently the supply chains in the pharmaceutical and cannabis industries are perceived.

“We have deep knowledge in both sectors to bridge the knowledge gap between the two industries. In the pharmaceutical industry, the efficacy of the supply chain is rarely questioned – it’s just assumed to be measured correctly," Berman said. "Unfortunately, the same is not true for the cannabis sector as a whole. That’s why, together with TruTrace, we are excited to be playing a key role in bringing these standards to the industry.”

What's Next? Blockchain “is cryptographically secure and tamper-proof” meaning data can’t be altered once it has been entered and verified.

With so much stigma present around the cannabis industry, companies will likely continue to look for ways and methods to obtain consumer trust. Technology, such as blockchain, may prove to be helpful since it verifies product origin, compliance, seed verification, lab results, proof of ownership, cultivating and production processes, as well as transactional information, location tracking, supply chain logistics, and consumer feedback.