Pharmaceutical sustainability initiatives ensure the entire industry can navigate current challenges and harness advanced innovations for current and future growth. The pharmaceutical industry is currently under immense internal and external pressures. Executives must balance the demands and inputs of their investors, shareholders, regulatory bodies, and the general public while meeting the demand for standard treatments and advancements in gene therapy, diabetes, weight loss, and oncology medications. This balancing act, intentional or unintentional, has resulted in many key sustainability measures being overlooked. This can be shown by a 49% drop in global company filing mentions of environmental sustainability in the first quarter of this year. While mentions of sustainability in financial filings have dropped, interest in innovations that drive sustainability continues to be evident, as seen in growing interest in green chemistry techniques and AI. Those investing in sustainability see value due to the financial and strategic benefits for their business. This article outlines how developers can utilize sustainability initiatives to boost revenue, reduce costs, and advance innovation, ensuring a strategic, long-term, and more sustainable position in today’s competitive landscape.
Sustainable Tech’s Positive Effect on Pharma Funding Recent innovations, including rapid advancements in AI-powered technologies and GLP-1s, have significantly impacted the investment climate and consolidated funding to a smaller number of organizations in the last eight months. This consolidation makes it even more important for small to mid-sized organizations to find ways to stand out and attract investment. One way to do this is by prioritizing sustainability, which can improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and ultimately benefit the organization’s bottom line. Additionally, these AI-powered technologies are increasing standards for operations and transparency, making it easier for companies to track and demonstrate their sustainability efforts. In late 2023, Deloitte found that over half of 105 surveyed global biopharma leaders were committed to reducing environmental impact and advancing sustainability by minimizing water use, sourcing sustainable materials, and overhauling supply chains. Beyond the obvious ethical benefits of environmental sustainability, investors believe that sustainable tech advancements can offer long-term returns due to their innovative nature. These advancements can enhance drug solubility and bioavailability, improve the speed to clinical trials, reduce environmental impact, and increase patient access to treatments.
Enhancing Development and Manufacturing Operations through Environmentally Sustainable Means The pharmaceutical industry’s evolving nature impacts patient care due to ongoing drug shortages from weakened operations. To address these issues, developers and manufacturers are looking at ways to improve their operations, accelerate development timelines, and strengthen long-term relationships with partners along supply chains through a renewed focus on sustainability. Implementing sustainable processes requires investigating every operational layer. This uncovers opportunities to implement green chemistry principles, overhaul inefficient manufacturing techniques, and modernize outdated methods. Optimizing these processes can deliver meaningful ROI through increased cost savings, enhanced efficiency, revenue growth, and attracting investors. Green chemistry is all about the utilization of renewable resources, minimizing waste, and eliminating toxic reagents and solvents throughout the manufacturing process. While these principles mainly focus on making active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), they’re just as important for drug product manufacturing, formulation development, packaging, and delivery. For example, many drug developers are now transitioning to fusion-based amorphous dispersion techniques instead of traditional solvent-based methods. This change helps meet the growing demand for poorly soluble drugs without using harmful solvents, reducing waste and improving efficiency. Continued innovation is crucial in enhancing sustainability within pharma and the broader biotech industry. Exciting improvements in processing technologies, especially those used to generate amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs), are transforming drug development and manufacturing, aligning with and advancing sustainability efforts. ASDs are essential for improving the bioavailability of poorly soluble drugs. Traditional methods like spray drying dispersion (SDD) often use organic solvents, which can harm the environment and pose health risks to workers. Commercial spray-dried products use over 8,000 metric tons of solvent each year. It’s hard to believe that despite these risks, solvents like dichloromethane (DCM) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) are still widely used to meet the demand for poorly soluble drugs. The introduction of fusion-based technologies represented a huge milestone in the battle to meet the demand for alternative, sustainable solutions. By eliminating harmful solvents, these technologies not only reduce environmental impact but they enhance drug bioavailability. These methods also simplify the manufacturing process, cut costs, and accelerate development timelines without compromising sustainability. One exciting example is high-energy fusion tech, which quickly mixes APIs and excipients, forming stable amorphous dispersions in seconds. These methods reduce operational waste and utilize fewer production resources than traditional solvent-based processes. Additionally, regulatory compliance is simplified, and extensive EH&S management systems are not as readily needed due to the absence of solvents from the process. Pharmaceutical companies can produce high-quality ASDs with improved sustainability, scalability, and performance by adopting these advanced fusion-based technologies. These innovations align with the broader industry goals of reducing carbon footprint and promoting environmental responsibility, without compromising formulation quality or operational efficiency. Another example is the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in drug discovery and development. Researchers use AI to predict parameters and results for in-vivo testing. This allows them to generate data and narrow down experiments to those most likely to provide desired results. By reducing trial and error, AI helps these companies achieve results while also lowering costs and reducing resource consumption, therefore increasing the efficiency of the process. The long-term goal is to be able to use AI to reduce the need for animal and human subjects in early phases, further driving sustainability and improved cost structures. The production of APIs carries a large environmental impact due to using large quantities of solvents and reagents. Today, some pharma companies are employing more sustainable protocols to prepare APIs, and to achieve this, greener solvents, reagents, and catalysts are being employed. For instance, AstraZeneca is leveraging light as a catalyst to accelerate chemical reactions and reduce reliance on reagents. For one of their late-stage programs, they estimate the project could save approximately 500,000 Kg of carbon dioxide per year compared to traditional processes. This not only boosts sustainability but also enhances process efficiency, leading to lower manufacturing costs and risks. By adopting these innovative, sustainable technologies, pharma companies can improve formulation performance and operational efficiency. Investors increasingly recognize sustainability aligns with better risk-adjusted returns, paving the way for more investment and growth. As a result, the entire industry can continue to research, develop, and deliver higher-quality, patient-saving treatments on a much more efficient, cost-effective, and personalized basis.
The Crucial Role of Sustainable, Resilient Supply Chains Most emissions from life sciences and healthcare companies can be tied back to their supply chains. Therefore, developing a sustainable supply chain is essential for reducing waste, energy use, and greenhouse gas emissions while cutting costs and developing more resilience to external disruptions. Thoroughly evaluating every facet of the supply chain can reveal a wealth of insights into processes while cultivating closer, more transparent relationships with vendor partners and other key stakeholders. That said, pharmaceutical sponsors cannot do this alone. With today’s increase in outsourcing, contract research development, and manufacturing, organizations must also implement more sustainable practices and innovation. It’s important to remember that building diverse, agile supply chain networks not only increases resilience but also prioritizes partnerships with vendors that share your organization’s sustainable goals. This guarantees each component of the supply chain supports fundamental environmentally sound objectives. These collaborations often involve pledges to use renewable energy, reduce waste, and promote recycling initiatives. Companies with higher visibility and control over their supply chains are better prepared to manage regulatory changes and unexpected disruptions. This proactive strategy allows them to rapidly adapt to new environmental regulations and market shifts. Additionally, investing in advanced technologies for real-time monitoring and data analytics can further improve supply chain transparency and efficiency, making sustainability initiatives more measurable and effective. Ultimately, future-proofing your supply chain creates pharmaceutical manufacturing methods that are sustainable and adaptable to future challenges while meeting immediate demand. Moreover, sustainable manufacturing practices can lower the cost of goods and total cost of ownership, leading to better margins and a competitive edge.
A Sustainable Industry Transforms Revenues, Product Quality, and Patient Outcomes Successfully implementing sustainable initiatives means taking a hard look at all processes. This commitment earns recognition and appreciation from investors, shareholders, regulatory bodies, and the public. Adopting sustainable practices is not only socially responsible but also strategically beneficial, fostering stronger, long-term, and more trusting relationships with these stakeholders. Investing in sustainability benefits the environment while improving the bottom line. Pharmaceutical organizations can improve overall operational efficiency by adopting green chemistry principles, revamping manufacturing processes, and focusing on supply chain transparency. This approach bolsters collaboration among investors, patients, and innovation initiatives, resulting in better treatment efficacy and patient outcomes.
REFERENCES
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