Complex global supply chains with multiple points of entry and no secure supply-chain-tracking systems make counterfeiting pharmaceuticals an easy, and very profitable, target for criminals. By logging, at source, a unique identifier (“UI”: e.g. laser mark, QR code, bio-marker, quantum-based identifier or serial number) associated with supply chain chemicals, tablets or capsules, and/or packaging into a decentralized [blockchain] database, it becomes possible to definitively track the authenticity of pharmaceuticals from chemical their constituents to consumption.