Clinical Research Firm for Nykaa, FirstCry Partners Qila.io to Get Blockchain Revamp

Mumbai-based blockchain firm Qila.io is gearing up to help bring transparency to clinical research using blockchain technology. Earlier this week, the company partnered with clinical research firm Mascot Spincontrol, also based in India’s financial capital. The project aims to protect the integrity of medical research work using secure and tamper-proof data storage using blockchain, while increasing stakeholders’ confidence in the security of information provided by the research firm. The underlying technology for Web3 services has shown promise in reshaping several industry sectors in the coming years.

Blockchain technology, also known as distributed ledger technology, distributes and stores data across multiple nodes. This prevents data from being concentrated in one place, making it difficult for hackers or other malicious agents to manipulate stored information.

In addition, the data recorded in the blockchain is immutable and cannot be changed, which ensures the authenticity and transparency of each record. The clinical research firm has conducted trials and tests on products from brands such as L’Oréal, Himalaya Wellness, Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), Mamaearth, Dabur, St. Botanica, Firstcry, Joy, Emami, Sugar, Nykaa.com, Glenmark, Sun Pharma, Marico, Plum and Dot and Key.

“The implementation of blockchain will improve the transparency and integrity of clinical trial results. The results of the clinical data would be irreversible and therefore would build a lot of faith in the promises of the brands! We are proud to be one of the first companies in our industry to adopt this technology,” said Mohit Lalvani, managing director and founder of Spincontrol Mascot in a prepared statement.

In addition to making research storage secure and transparent, blockchain technology has other use cases related to the healthcare sector. These include ensuring transparency in supply chain management, ensuring data sharing and ensuring accurate drug authentication.

This is not the first time in India that blockchain technology has been integrated into the healthcare sector. Back in 2022, the Maharashtra government teamed up with Algorand blockchain and MAPay, which is a health technology firm, to store health data as NFTs.

Research firm study Root analysis suggests that the global use of blockchain technology in the healthcare market is expected to grow from $58 million (approx. Rs. 484 crore) in 2023 to $641 million (approx. Rs. 5,353 crore) by 2035, representing a compound annual rate growth rate (CAGR) of 22 percent over the forecast period 2023-2035. Precedence, another market research firm, grades that the healthcare blockchain market size could swell to $14.25 billion (roughly Rs. 1,19,005 crore) by 2032.

The partnership between Mascot Spincontrol and Qila.io also opens the door to explore additional collaborative initiatives, which includes the application of blockchain tokenization solutions for clinical research data sharing. The collaboration will further include pilot programs to demonstrate the effectiveness of blockchain technology in improving data integrity and transparency.

“By combining Mascot’s clinical research capabilities with Qila’s blockchain expertise, we are creating a powerful synergy that addresses critical industry challenges and drives innovation in healthcare research,” Qila.io founder Sid said on Friday Ugrankar.