As concerns mount around the rise of counterfeit drugs, supply chain technologies such as IoT asset tracking, blockchain ledgers, and product & packaging authentication can provide pharma companies with more visibility and supply chain security.
Interest in Ozempic — a GLP-1 receptor agonist developed to treat Type 2 diabetes — has skyrocketed due to its off-label use for rapid weight loss in recent years.
The impact on the pharma industry has been substantial, with Ozempic’s producer, Novo Nordisk, seeing a 36% rise in sales in 2023 driven by the accelerated adoption of its GLP-1 products. D2C pharmacies like Hims are also entering the space, offering their own GLP-1 drugs at a fraction of the cost to patients.
The rapid growth in prescriptions for these appetite-curbing drugs has drawn wide-spread attention from corporates across industries. 
Read what corporates are saying about GLP-1 agonists in this earnings transcript search on the CB Insights platform.
Because of Ozempic’s popularity, however, counterfeits have started to breach the supply chain. The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a global alert in June 2024 about counterfeit batches of Ozempic seized by authorities in the US, UK, and Brazil.
These counterfeits can trigger recalls affecting millions of patients, causing significant costs for drug manufacturers and consumers through reverse logistics, disposal and reproduction costs, and reputational damage.
Currently, a major hurdle in the pharma supply chain is coordinating traceability solutions across all players, from raw materials suppliers to logistics providers to pharmacies. But by adopting a multi-layered approach that integrates both virtual and physical tools, pharma companies can mitigate the threat of counterfeit drugs from multiple angles:
- Monitor the movement of drugs along the supply chain with IoT asset tracking
- Utilize blockchain pharmaceutical ledgers to provide end-to-end supply chain visibility to all players
- Enable patients to verify authenticity before consumption with product & packaging authentication tech
Below, we explore the key drivers behind these trends, highlight promising tech markets, and identify opportunities for investors to shape the future of the pharma supply chain.
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