Accountability and Transparency in the Pharmaceutical Sector, WHO Collaborating Centre for Governance, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Expert Opin Drug Saf. 2022 Aug;21(8):1061-1088. doi: 10.1080/14740338.2022.2091543. Epub 2022 Jun 28.
The urgent need to acquire medical supplies amidst the COVID-19 pandemic has led to bypassing of controls that govern the global pharmaceutical supply chain, increasing the risk of corruption. Hence, promoting anti-corruption, transparency, and accountability (ACTA) in supply chain and procurement has never been more important. The adoption of digital tools, if designed and implemented appropriately, can reduce the risks of corruption.
Following PRISMA guidelines, we conducted an interdisciplinary systematic review of health/medicine, humanities/social sciences, engineering, and computer science literature, with the aims of identifying technologies used for pharmaceutical supply chain and procurement optimization and reviewing whether they address ACTA mechanisms to strengthen pharmaceutical governance. Our review identified four distinct categories of digital solutions: e-procurement and open contracting; track-and-trace technology; anti-counterfeiting technology; and blockchain technology.
Findings demonstrate an increase in research of technologies to improve pharmaceutical supply chain and procurement functions; however, most technologies are not being leveraged to directly address ACTA or global health outcomes. Some blockchain and RFID technologies incorporated ACTA mechanisms and mentioned specific policy/governance frameworks, but more purposeful linkage is needed. Findings point to the need for targeted policy development and governance to activate these innovative technologies to improve global health .
在 COVID-19 大流行期间，对医疗用品的迫切需求导致绕过了监管全球药品供应链的控制措施，增加了腐败的风险。因此，促进供应链和采购中的反腐败、透明度和问责制（ACTA）从未如此重要。如果设计和实施得当，采用数字工具可以降低腐败风险。
我们遵循 PRISMA 指南，对健康/医学、人文/社会科学、工程和计算机科学文献进行了跨学科系统评价，旨在确定用于药品供应链和采购优化的技术，并审查它们是否针对加强药品治理的 ACTA 机制。我们的审查确定了四个不同类别的数字解决方案：电子采购和开放合同；跟踪和追溯技术；防伪技术；和区块链技术。
研究结果表明，用于改善药品供应链和采购功能的技术研究有所增加；然而，大多数技术并未被利用来直接解决 ACTA 或全球健康结果。一些区块链和 RFID 技术纳入了 ACTA 机制，并提到了具体的政策/治理框架，但需要更有针对性的联系。研究结果表明，需要有针对性的政策制定和治理来激活这些创新技术，以改善全球健康。
