Chinese Pharma Gets Blockchain Solution
IBM has partnered with Sichuan Hejia, a Chinese language agro-tech and automotive components firm, to develop a blockchain-based solution for the Chinese pharmaceutical sector.
The project is formally called “The Yijian Blockchain Technology Application System,” a permissioned blockchain platform that uses Hyperledger Fabric. The platform is expected to deal with the financing problems that pharmaceutical retailers face.
The platform is in production with Hejia and one pharmaceutical retailer, a hospital and a bank running business transactions. Hejia plans to expand the platform in July to include multiple pharmaceutical retailers, hospitals and banks.
The aim of the platform is to reduce the turnover time of funds on both sides of the supply chain, provide more information for banks, and enable them to grant more access to funding for small and medium pharmaceutical retailers.
“The launch of the supply chain financial services platform marks a milestone for the cooperation between Hejia and IBM on the innovative application of blockchain technology,” said Hejia board chairman Leng Tianhui. “In the future, the platform will expand to include more industries to provide participating companies and financial institutions with transparent and efficient financing services built on blockchain-based innovation in a business model that will contribute to China’s economic development.”
The development of the Yijian Blockchain Technology Application System also marks the successful business transformation of Hejia. IBM helped Hejia by providing insights from analysing the supply chain finance industry and the financing conditions facing pharmaceutical retailers.
“Blockchain can fundamentally transform businesses by eliminating inefficiencies, speeding up transactions and enabling innovative new business models,” said Dr Shen Xiaowei, director of IBM Research – China, CTO of IBM Greater China Group. “The Yijian Blockchain Technology Application System we’ve built with Hejia is a great showcase of this capability. We look forward to continued collaboration with Hejia to apply this technology to other industry use cases.”
