Powering global pharma to net zero

The race for sustainable pharmaceuticals

Soaring CO2 levels

Accounting for 4.4% of global carbon emissions, the pharmaceutical sector is a major source of climate-warming greenhouse gas.

With complex, extended supply chains, a legacy of energy-hungry manufacturing and rising customer and government demands for decarbonisation, the industry is ready for change.

In 2023, atmospheric CO2 levels soared to a record high: 420 parts per million. We are racing against time to reduce carbon emissions and meet the Paris Agreement’s deadline of net zero by 2050. To succeed, the pharmaceutical industry must reform energy-hungry processes, source energy and water sustainably, and take responsibility for complex international supply chains.

Pharma’s unique sustainability challenge

The pharmaceutical sector is responsible for 4.4% of global greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). This share could triple by 2050 at the current rate – unless we take action now.

The pharmaceutical industry’s emission intensity is about 55% higher than the automotive industry’s. As part of the NHS supply chain, the pharmaceutical industry needs to reduce carbon emissions to help meet the NHS’s 2040 net zero ambition and achieve greater sustainability. By 2030 the NHS aims to only purchase from suppliers that align with its net zero ambitions, highlighting the urgency for the industry to adapt and minimise its environmental impact.

Pharma companies need to drive down emissions at all levels and build climate credentials across all three decarbonisation categories:

Scope 1: emissions from all in-house energy consumption, including during manufacturing.
Scope 2: indirect emissions from the production of consumed energy.
Scope 3: indirect emissions from across the company’s value chain. Scope 3 emissions are the largest category, and cover supply chain, logistics, packaging, disposal and end-of-life recycling.
- Supply chain: over 50% of healthcare emissions
- Drug trials: up to 100 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year, equivalent to a mid-sized country.

Mapping a way forward

Cutting back on emissions often means starting close to home then broadening out to the wider ecosystem. Before you can reduce your carbon footprint, you need to measure it. Then you can identify easy wins like upgrading heating, cooling, lighting, electrification and switching to renewable energy.

The next step: re-examine the processes and systems involved in manufacturing. Consider moving from batch production to more efficient continuous processes, adopting green chemistry alternatives like biocatalysis, or carrying out discovery and experimentation in a simulated digital environment rather than a lab.

Helping pharma to decarbonise

We’re pioneering new technologies for drug manufacturing, processing and packaging, and we drive digitalisation innovation too. These technologies and the expertise behind them are available to companies of any size who want to work with us.

They include the creation of digital twins, which cut down costs, simulate processes for optimisation, and shift resource-intensive R&D into virtual environments.

For physical manufacturing, we have expertise in oligonucleotide synthesis, just-in-time manufacturing for clinical trial medication, and we’ve developed a GMP demonstrator platform for continuous direct compression of oral medication. These innovations dramatically cut waste and energy use while improving flexibility for pharmaceutical companies.

We also use our expertise to develop new and more sustainable products and processes for pharmaceutical companies such as:

How CPI can help

Expertise in biocatalysis and green chemistry
Continuous direct compression facilities for oral medication
Testbed for companies to explore new manufacturing technologies
Digital twinning modelling to reduce resource-intensive R&D and process optimisation
Just-in-time manufacturing for small-quantity drug production
Process analytical technology (PAT)
UV‑C sterilisation techniques to cut back on single-use plastic waste
Low-solvent manufacturing of next-generation oligonucleotide medication
New Ambr250 and Bioaccord
Packaging materials to cover supply chain capability.

International innovation

The UK is a leader in healthcare decarbonisation, with the NHS setting a target for its suppliers to be net zero by 2040. However, many countries in the supply chain are working to longer deadlines. India ranks third in the world for medicines production by volume and supplies a quarter of all UK medicines. But its pharma sector isn’t expected to reach net zero before 2070.

We’re trying to accelerate this timeline by building international innovation partnerships with strategic key players. As part of the UK-India Net Zero Innovation Virtual Centre, we’re leading the decarbonisation of Indian pharma manufacturing processes, establishing a living laboratory in India to trial and embed low-carbon technologies across the sector. Continuous flow chemistry was the first technology selected to trial.