GREENER Pharmaceuticals for More Sustainable Healthcare

Area of Science:

• Environmental Chemistry
• Pharmaceutical Science
• Green Chemistry

Background:

• Pharmaceuticals, essential for human health, pose environmental risks post-consumption.
• Medicinal residues in excreta enter wastewater, impacting aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To advocate for a GREENER (Green, Healthy, Environmentally Responsible, and Efficacious) approach in drug development.
• To identify environmental criteria for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs).
• To explore the integration of these criteria into drug discovery and development.

Main Methods:

• Defining environmental criteria: effect reduction (non-target effects, undesirable moieties), exposure reduction (emissions, biodegradability), and absence of persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) substances.
• Assessing the feasibility of incorporating these criteria into drug design.
• Identifying necessary tools and assays for evaluating environmental impact.

Main Results:

• The GREENER approach prioritizes patient safety and efficacy alongside environmental protection.
• Key criteria include minimizing non-target effects, enhancing biodegradability, and avoiding PBT substances.
• Discussion on the practical implementation of these criteria in early-stage drug development.

Conclusions:

• An integrated GREENER approach is crucial for sustainable pharmaceutical innovation.
• Adopting these environmental criteria can accelerate the development of safer medicines.
• This framework supports a paradigm shift towards environmentally conscious drug discovery.