PharmaLedger Association Milestones March 2022 – June 2023
Since PLA’s formation as a legal entity in March 2022, the Association has achieved several major milestones in pursuit of its mission to provide a global governance, compliance and operating model that enables innovation and inspires collaboration among healthcare stakeholders.
PLA is proud of these achievements, and will continue to work tirelessly to enable a Healthcare 4.0 experience that is digitally trusted, privacy preserving, patient-centric, and industry-inclusive.
Click the links below to learn more about each milestone, and sign up for our newsletter to stay in the loop on our work.
Are you interested in getting involved with PLA? Take our guided journey to find your fit in the PLA ecosystem.
March 2022: PLA formed as a Swiss association and legal entity
To implement and transition to the post-project governance and operating model,PLA was established as a not-for-profit association based in Basel, Switzerland with the purpose “to enable and foster a Digital Trust Ecosystem (DTE) in healthcare through a standardized and trusted open-source platform. The Association promotes collaboration and accelerates innovation and adoption to achieve mutual benefits in the healthcare and life science domains for patients and other stakeholders.”
August 2022: General assembly of IMI PharmaLedger Project, endorsement of PLA as post-project sustainability strategy, transfer of assets and inclusion of PharmaLedger Association as the consortium’s 30th Member.
The PharmaLedger Project’s consortium members formally endorsed the creation of the PharmaLedger Association (PLA) as well as its accession into the consortium as a strategy to sustain and globally scale the project initiatives, with transfer of all project assets and results. The original project supported the research and development of blockchain-enabled healthcare solutions, and one of its key goals was to create an adoption strategy. With the creation of a legal entity, the work of the project can be implemented and grow beyond its original scope, opening up to the addition of new healthcare stakeholders as members.
October 2022: PLA open for membership, first members onboarded
From the opening of memberships, PLA started gaining momentum with the conversion of PharmaLedger consortium members into PLA members and the addition of new members from the healthcare ecosystem.
PLA onboarded 30 members through June 2023.
All organizations and companies with a proven connection to the healthcare industry can become a member of PLA, including manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, pharmacy chains, clinics, hospitals, technology or other specialized service providers, healthcare providers, government organizations, NGOs, and patient organizations, among others.
November 2022: Daniel Fritz appointed Executive Director
As the first employee of the PharmaLedger Association, Daniel Fritz oversees operations and reports to the Board of Directors. In his own words, “Blockchain is a team sport. PLA has started with a diverse and strong team of members who share a common vision and who believe in change. With PLA we have the right vehicle, resources, and roadmap to take patients to a better place in healthcare.”
December 2022: Closing event of the PharmaLedger Project in Madrid
At the PharmaLedger project’s Closing Event and Expo in Madrid, consortium members and guests celebrated three successful years supporting blockchain-enabled healthcare and looked ahead to the next chapter: the new PharmaLedger Association.
January 2023: James Gannon onboarded as VP of Quality, Trust, and Safety, closing of the PharmaLedger Project
James Gannon has a background of over a decade working in healthcare technology, as well as a passion for driving innovation and patient value through the implementation of cutting-edge technologies. In his own words, “I believe that the PharmaLedger Association represents a new era in regulated open-source software development. By bringing together industry leaders, technical experts, and patient organizations, we are charting a course towards more collaborative, efficient, and trustworthy solutions for the pharmaceutical industry. With the power of open source and the commitment of our members, I am confident that we can drive meaningful change and advance the cause of patient safety and wellbeing.”
March 2023: 1st PLA Annual General Meeting + Board of Directors elected, 2022 Annual Report released
At PLA’s first Annual General Meeting in March 2023, the Association:
- Endorsed its 3-year strategic plan to implement and promote a Digital Trust Ecosystem in Healthcare (DTE-H)
- Confirmed the appointment of eight Directors to its board
- Delivered on its core value of “Ecosystem Leadership”.
- Confirmed its mandate as a pre-competition umbrella organization delivering common and interoperable digital solutions in the areas of Product Trust, Decentralized Clinical Trials, and Supply Chain Traceability.
April 2023: Launch of our first product to members: GxP-qualified ePI by PharmaLedger
PLA’s first product, ePI by PharmaLedger, allows patients and providers easy access to up-to-date medical product information via a simple smartphone scan. Additional features will be added in future releases.
Learn more about the ePI by PharmaLedger journey from subject matter experts James Gannon, Ken Thursby, and Marco Cuomo.
ePI by PharmaLedger is the heart of PLA’s Product Trust platform and portfolio. By providing a secure and transparent platform for product information sharing, the Product Trust platform is driving new levels of trust, efficiency, and patient safety in the healthcare industry.
May 2023: Clarisse Dias Da Mota onboarded as VP of Ecosystem Operations and Strategy
With over 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry, Clarisse is a dynamic force of change, guiding both small and large teams across global pharma organizations, and tackling challenges spanning finance, supply chain, IT, programs management, and business strategy. In her own words, “My commitment to PharmaLedger started back in 2019 when I could first envision the transformative benefits of applying trust-enabling technologies to healthcare. Creating the PharmaLedger Association has elevated that challenge while exponentially increasing the opportunities. I believe in self-sovereign data and privacy by design as the key ingredients to the success of any digital initiative, and PLA is in a unique position to bring together healthcare stakeholders in a pre-competition, transparent, nonprofit environment to cut through the noise and implement solutions that truly work for all stakeholders.”
Our journey of collaboration on ePI continues! We’ve been bringing PLA members together to accelerate the technical implementation of ePI within our members’ internal environment and to share ideas for future versions of the product. In May, we held an ePI technical workshop at the Prague offices of PLA Patron member MSD.
