Blockchain-powered open sharing platform for collaborative drug discovery

Purpose and goal

The purpose of the project was to create a platform for new forms of collaborations around drug research and drug development. The goal was to realize a prototype platform to enable the sharing of intellectual property and physical assets (molecules) in a safe and transparent manner. Molecules are developed to become active drugs, but companies keep information secret due to property rights and patenting needs. In this project, we have built a blockchain-based prototype for traceable, secure and transparent tokenization of molecules and their properties.

Expected results and effects

The result of the project is a working prototype platform that has been initiated with real academic molecules. Platform testing on academic users for evaluation and feedback is initiated. Based on this work, we expect that it will be possible to expand the platform also for industrial collaborations. Although the complexity of the system will increase here, the work on the existing prototype has shown that there are good opportunities for solving the problems related to industrial adaptation.

Planned approach and implementation

The platform was built in two parts, with a blockchain-based back-end in Fabric and a web-based front-end, and emphasis was placed on addressing the important interdisciplinary core issues around law, chemistry, data security, blockchain technology and implementation. A technical analysis shows that it is possible to implement such a prototype in many different ways, but blockchain technology has its advantages. As part of the work we analyzed licensing models for digitized molecules. These must work well in order to break the current pattern of corporate secrecy in the long term.