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By Christiana Briddell, Communications Portfolio Manager, ACS Green Chemistry Institute
Producing life-saving medicines in a way that is environmentally sustainable by implementing green chemistry and engineering has been the focus of the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable (ACS GCIPR) since its inception in 2005. Investing in green chemistry has brought substantial benefits, both environmental and economic, and solidified green chemistry across the industry as the gold standard.
As the Roundtable marks its second decade with the momentum and strength that 20 years of collaboration and 50+ members give it, it is poised to take this mission forward—addressing new demands and positioning green chemistry as an integral part of sustainability in the pharma industry and beyond. At the recent 29th annual Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference, members of the Roundtable presented their vision for and progress towards creating a “GCIPR Technology Roadmap for Sustainable Medicines,” which will organize the Roundtable’s actions for the next 20 years, as well as signal to the research community needs and collaboration opportunities.
Already, many pharma companies have publicly committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions (among other sustainability measures). Manufacturing the API contributes approximately 25% of the total emissions from pharmaceutical companies, and includes upstream emissions (known as Scope 3) related to feedstocks and input materials, and related energy use, as well as the emissions from the actual product and from disposing of waste. Therefore, meeting corporate sustainability targets must include reducing the impact of API Manufacturing throughout the global supply chain using green chemistry.
To meet these ambitious objectives, the vision of the GCIPR Roadmap is bold: to define a path to produce Net-Zero Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) while minimizing other hazards to human health and the environment within the next two decades. The Roadmap will comprehensively consider impacts on water, biodiversity, supply chain, safety, waste, and climate impact areas.
Specific strategies to address these topics will be fleshed out in detail in the GCIPR Roadmap, which the Roundtable intends to publish on its website within the next year. In particular, the Roadmap will focus on several strategic areas:
- Circularity and Renewable Chemicals
- More Efficient Synthetic Methods
- Safer Synthetic Conditions & Alternatives to Hazardous Substances
- Process Intensification and Electrification
- Metrics and Decision-Making
Solutions to these focus areas will be tackled within the Roundtable’s existing strategic areas of Advancing Research, Educating Students & Influencing Leaders, and Tools for Innovation, and advanced through the Roundtable's 20+ focus teams. To achieve the sustainable manufacture of medicines, the industry must confront many challenges from new standardized metrics to more efficient synthetic technologies to increased supply chain transparency, and beyond. It’s a task that can be best approached through collaboration, and that positions the ACS Green Chemistry Institute’s largest industrial Roundtable on firm footing to achieve it.