ATMPS Ltd – a spinout of FarmaTrust announces that its Hataali blockchain platform has been successfully tested with University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust’s system interface. Data interoperability was shown to be possible, rendering the Hataali platform as the world’s first blockchain solution for advanced therapeutic medicinal products.

Hataali is a new pioneering blockchain-based cell orchestration platform that is interoperable with any other stakeholder interface and is designed to track advanced therapies from vein-to-vein.

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) hosts the Midlands and Wales Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre (MW-ATTC), which is a consortium of NHS, academic and industry partners. The MW-ATTC – supported by Innovate UK – is one of three centres in the ATTC network across the UK working together to accelerate ATMP delivery in the NHS. The informatics work, led by UHB within the MW-ATTC, proposes one NHS platform via which ATMP manufacturers could liaise with hospitals. The integration of cell orchestration platforms with UHB’s system will allow full and transparent visibility of samples and treatments.

“For the Midlands and Wales Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre project, we have been developing a prototype IT system that can record scheduling and ordering data for ATMP treatments. The system offers a number of integration points (APIs) to any Cell Orchestration Platform such that the platform can communicate the relevant data to the prototype NHS IT system. We have been delighted to have ATMPS as a blockchain partner working collaboratively with our NHS Health Informatics team, to successfully test all those integration points. This is strong proof of concept showing that Hataali blockchain platform can successfully integrate with an NHS system using “standards” based integration points.”, Professor Philip Newsome, Director of Midlands and Wales Advanced Therapy Treatment Centre, University of Birmingham.

The MW-ATTC project, led by UHB, will form an effective example for the advanced therapy community tracking system to be rolled-out on a national scale.

Impressively, the integration testing has taken place during the COVID-19 pandemic and the technical team at UHB were able to work with the ATMPS team under extreme pressurised circumstances. “What’s most impressive about this partnership is that we’ve been able to work together to implement this prototype platform at a time where COVID-19 is putting immense pressure on IT resources,” said John Attwood, Health Informatics Programme Manager at UHB.

“It’s a big moment for the ATMP space, as this is now the first network created anywhere in the world based on a blockchain technology. It’s been designed to provide the infrastructure for other stakeholders such as developers, 3^rd Party Logistics and clinics to join on a secure, immutable and interoperable digital platform.  We hope it’s the inflection point where, with many more of these therapies coming to market imminently and, with their individualised delivery,, that we start to take a long-term-view on the most appropriate technologies. Our system will provide a full chain of custody, identity and condition which is so critical to ATMPs,” commented, Raja Sharif, CEO of ATMPS Ltd.

Hataali complies with GDPR requirements, and provides an immutable audit trail, which can be examined by authorised entities, including regulators. It is also a future-proof technology, which insurance companies will be able to integrate with any new payment models that the pharmaceutical companies implement for ATMPs.