Merck Launches M-Trust Platform to Address Product Safety

With the rise of intricate global supply chains spanning multiple countries and industries, managing products is a pivotal concern for manufacturers.

Today most manufacturers are facing the same three critical challenges concerning their products: ensuring transparency, traceability and mitigating the risk of counterfeiting.

If these challenges are unaddressed they can result in some serious consequences.

• A lack of transparency increases the risk of safety issues, non-compliance with regulations and costly recalls that can damage brand reputation and erode consumer trust.
• Counterfeiting can cost manufacturers billions annually in lost revenue and expose customers to substandard or unsafe products.
• A lack of traceability makes it difficult for manufacturers to pinpoint product issues quickly and validate the authenticity of materials.

 Laura Matz, Chief Science & Technology Officer of Merck understands how vital addressing these challenges is.

"As expectations for product quality control rise, companies must ensure safety and transparency in their industrial value chains while complying with ever-tightening regulations," she says.

"Until now, they may have struggled to fully digitalise assurance processes because machines did not meet human standards."

These challenges are compounded by evolving regulatory requirements like the EU Digital Product Passport, which demands more robust solutions for tracking and verifying product information.

So, how can manufacturers address these challenges? Through technology.

Technology like Merck's latest cyber-physical solution.

Introducing M-Trust

Merck, a leader in the pharmaceutical and science industries, has unveiled a beta version of M-Trust platform, its new secure cyber-physical trust platform.

This platform is designed to tackle the growing challenges of product safety, traceability and counterfeiting by immutably connecting the physical and digital realms.

Powered by advanced Web 3.0 technology, it enables the creation of digital twins to improve product security and streamline quality control processes.

The platform allows customers to:

• Use crypto-anchor technologies to link physical products with their digital identities, improving traceability and ensuring quality across the supply chain.
• Operate within a framework that translates human capabilities in quality control into efficient, error-resistant machine-to-machine interactions, enabling machines to identify objects and make verifiable claims about them.
• Embed product authenticity into systems, including potential smart contracts to verify data and automate agreements throughout the value chain.

The M-Trust software and hardware portfolio is a first-to-market solution built on multi-patented technology.

The Platform as a Service (PaaS) includes software easily integrated into existing workflows, adaptable crypto anchors for varying security needs and compatible reader hardware.

Developed in-house at Merck the platform reflects the company’s expertise in product quality and security.

It also boasts adaptability features for emerging technologies and regulatory standards like the EU Digital Product Passport.

Verified users will gain early access to the beta of the M-Trust platform with updates on general availability set to follow in due course.

"M-Trust is a first-to-market, cyber-physical trust platform that enhances product traceability and authenticity by digitally empowering human capabilities in quality control processes," Laura continues

"Designed for businesses that want to remain competitive in today’s connected world, this innovative technology is also poised to enable the novel business models of tomorrow.”

Benefits to manufacturers 

The M-Trust platform provides transformative benefits for manufacturers by addressing product safety, traceability and counterfeiting challenges.

Through its advanced crypto-anchor technologies, it enhances traceability across supply chains.

This reduces counterfeit risks and ensures every production stage is verifiable, strengthening brand reputation and product integrity.

By supporting digital twins the platform also enables manufacturers to digitise quality control processes and streamline operations.

Through automating traditionally human-led tasks, the platform helps reduces errors, increase efficiency and accelerate production timelines.

Merck's platform also features smart contract capabilities which automate data verification and agreements within the supply chain, heightening transparency and reducing administrative overhead.

This comes in addition to its sophisticated identification software that stringently verifies the authenticity of relevant products. 

With adaptable software and hardware solutions that integrate seamlessly into existing workflows, M-Trust empowers manufacturers to improve efficiency, ensure product authenticity and foster trust across the supply chain.

By addressing the three core aforementioned challenges surrounding products, manufacturers gain a vital competitive edge and ensure they deliver quality and consistency to customers and stakeholders.

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