Driving sustainability in the pharmaceutical industry

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are directly linked to global warming and environmental degradation, with CO₂ accounting for two-thirds of global GHG emissions. While every sector produces carbon emissions, the pharma industry’s emissions intensity (emissions per unit value generated) is amongst the highest, outstripping the automotive sector by 55%. Healthcare accounts for 4.4% of the world’s GHG emissions, and this footprint is forecast to triple by 2050 if left unchecked.

Clearly, we must act. The 2015 Paris Agreement set a deadline of 2050 for net zero carbon emissions, though not all countries are working to the same timeline. Some large nations such as India and China, which are core manufacturing powerhouses for the pharmaceutical industry, have more extended deadlines, up to 2070. Meanwhile, the UK NHS has set a target of net zero by 2040, making a strong commitment to action that has galvanised other nations. 

Scope 1,2, and 3 emissions in the pharma industry

In order to be considered net zero, a company must be carbon neutral across three important categories of emission:

• Scope 1 emissions are those produced directly by a company, including buildings, vehicles, and machinery. 

• Scope 2 emissions come from purchased energy supply. 

• Scope 3 emissions are indirect and include the supply chain and the emissions produced by customers using and discarding the end product. 

These net-zero requirements touch every business. Whether they are SMEs, small start-ups or large companies, all pharma businesses will be audited for scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions at some point. So, it’s critical to plan ahead, take action and make the process changes required before regulatory hurdles make it difficult to do business. 

Our goal at CPI is to drive forward innovation in the pharma space and guide businesses along the right path to reach a sustainable net zero operation. 

Pharma’s challenges

Pharmaceutical manufacturing is energy-hungry and largely reliant on fossil fuels. Processes use vast quantities of water, which is unsustainable in countries with potable water shortages. The industry is also heavily regulated, and for good reason, but this has led to over-engineering processes and a lack of flexibility that restricts change. 

Making drugs is costly and complex, which is especially challenging for manufacturing low-margin generic medicines. When it comes to scope 3 emissions, it can be difficult to track and measure the impact at each step in the supply chain, especially those far removed from the customer. For example, around 80% of total pharma-related emissions are attributed to raw material extraction and manufacture. 

Mismatched decarbonisation deadlines

Managing scope 3 emissions gets more complicated when the supply chain is a global one, not least because of the variance in national timelines for reaching net zero. 

If countries with longer deadlines, such as India, lag behind in decarbonisation, it will impact the scope 3 emissions of faster-moving international customers who rely on them as part of their supply chain. 

In theory, India’s pharma sector will no longer be able to sell to countries that have met their net zero targets, because their emissions are too high. India, known as the ​‘world’s pharmacy’, is a key supplier of generic medicines. And for health services like the NHS, where around 80% of primary care drugs are generics, India’s climate progress is critical to maintaining climate-compliant pipelines. 

The UK and India pharma decarbonisation partnership

It’s in everyone’s best interests to work quickly and work together. CPI is leading a partnership programme between the UK and India that aims to reach net zero faster by sharing knowledge and encouraging innovation in sustainable technology. 

One of this partnership’s flagship initiatives is the Living Lab. Located in Pune, India, this facility is a testbed where companies can de-risk their manufacturing by replicating and testing new technologies. It will also showcase the potential of sustainable and low-energy-consumption technologies like continuous flow synthesis, solvent-free manufacturing, and biocatalysis encouraging wider uptake by the industry. 

Changing the mindset of pharma innovation

For pharma SMEs, process innovation is a crucial part of decarbonisation. Manufacturing differently and changing how your business operates is the only way to achieve net zero. 

This starts at the planning stage. Businesses must take on board considerations like measuring their carbon footprint for new drugs and new modalities. Before doing anything else, they must look at each step of their process, their raw materials and supply chain and what impact those have on their emissions. That might mean moving to green chemistry, adopting flow chemistry, shifting from batch manufacturing to continuous processes, or something entirely new. 

Taking the time to think about these potential impacts, direct and indirect, at the development stage makes it much easier to move through the steps to manufacture and commercialisation without hitting regulatory hurdles. 

Planning ahead for sustainability — a philosophy called sustainability by design — goes beyond the choice of technology and materials. It includes geographical and political implications. For example, a company may decide to avoid solvents and use water-based green chemistry for ecological reasons, but if there’s potable water scarcity around their manufacturing site, aqueous chemistry will have a negative effect overall if it compromises people’s available drinking water. 

Sustainability by design is now being instilled at the earliest levels of process design, and even in educational curriculums so that those entering the workforce come prepared. It will change the face of the industry for the better, and stimulate innovation that we wouldn’t otherwise have without our progress towards net zero.