Tech Mahindra Partners With Blockchain Firm For Vaccine Tracing

Tech Mahindra partners with blockchain firm StaTwig in order to roll out a new vaccine tracing solution worldwide as we read more in our latest blockchain news today.

Aiming to tackle the supply chain issues that impact the expiry of COVID-19 vaccines, Tech Mahindra partnered with blockchain firm StaTwig for the “VaccineLedger” solution worldwide. As mass vaccination programs against COVID become increasingly critical to many governments in regards to pandemic management, blockchain companies are acting fast to propose other ways in which the technology will offer solutions to some of the logistical hurdles involved.

The blockchain company StaTwig was already probing its blockchain-based solution Vaccine Ledger in 2019 in the United States and India but in 2021 the global vaccination drive against the virus started and the company now partnered with Tech Mahindra to roll out solutions worldwide. VaccineLedger is focused on improving the transparency of the vaccine supply chain at the vial level aiming to predict and prevent issues like stock expiry, counterfeiting, quality control, and availability. Days after the attempted vaccine swap deal between Israel and UK, it resulted in an imminent waste of 1 million Pfizer vaccines so a need for a solution is much needed.

StaTwig’s solution supports the integration of smart contracts and IoT technologies in order to detect the products due to expiration and to ensure temperature control for the sensitive units. By partnering with Tech Mahindra, StaTwig will bring the company’s expertise and system integration in order to support the solution’s implementation across the world. Both companies developed enterprise security modules for the solution’s mobile and web apps that are designed to meet the various requirements and governments in various jurisdictions.

The challenges faced by other countries remained uneven as in the US, millions of COVID19 vaccine doses are at risk of expiring this summer because of the hesitancy in many states. Most countries in the Global South face a bigger problem which is the lack of vaccines. The countries in the Global North account for 85% of shots administered globally while the lowest-income countries account for just 0.3% of vaccine doses administered.  While globally integrated, the ledger solution cannot overcome vaccine inequality whose roots are political and it can aim to help global actors mitigate the effects of wase and delivery delays due to the logistical inefficiencies. In places where vaccines remain scarce, these gains could help to ensure that what little is left is maximally used.