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Green Manufacturing in the Pharmaceutical Industry

In the pharmaceutical industry, manufacturing can be a complex process varying from plant to plant and product to product. Making an environmentally friendly manufacturing process can be challenging and must take into consideration regulatory issues and safety. The main challenge for the pharmaceutical industry is to be able to keep to their production schedules and deliver medicines where they are needed but to keep the environment and sustainability in mind.

With the increased focus on the environmental needs to preserve the environment for future generations and to responsibly consume and produce, companies are embracing more sustainable strategies. Many technologies ensure cleaner energy consumption and improve waste management that has been developed and is easy to implement. It is important to lead the way and target initiatives to try and reduce the amount of impact that medicines have.

The products and processes used in drug development can be toxic to the environment, are often expensive, and can produce a lot of waste. This in turn can pose a threat if the waste is not disposed of correctly. With every 1 kg of the active ingredient, 100 times more material is produced, which requires facilities for production and waste disposal, and longer lead times. This can be bad for the environment and extremely expensive.

Turning Green

Being green has many advantages for businesses. Examples are reducing waste and cutting costs. However, the decision to be greener always comes down to time vs money. Reducing waste and carbon footprint brings financial benefits to a business. One of how medicine development and supply can be improved is by harnessing technology that can streamline processes, reduce the risk of batch failures, and improve yield. This is good for the company and good for the planet.

Compaction simulators were originally invented to reduce the manufacturing risks of tablet products. They are hydraulic test presses connected to computer control to explore compression and make predictions. Today, they are working to improve processes at all stages of tablet development. Imagine if those issues which are causing poor yield and failed batches in production now could have been prevented, how much less waste would there be?

Being green by working smarter - there are many ways to increase efficiency by harnessing compaction science.

Making Developments

In early tablet development, understanding the properties of the initial powders can fast-track the way to a more successful formulation. Expensive drugs are saved by reducing the requirements and need for full-scale tests.

As the process develops, testing in the laboratory can mimic production conditions on a fraction of the scale that full-sized production equipment needs. It used only gram quantities rather than kilogram quantities and reduces the need for full-scale experimentation. Being able to provide highly accurate measurements and testing with a small amount of sample to indentify any potential problems can lead to huge savings in time and money during the scale-up. The biggest saving is to the environment as less waste is produced.

Testing a formulation and determining the optimum compression can improve the efficiency of the production process. Production will not have to stop when an issue is found which in turn saves time and money. Sticking is often a problem that can cause a loss of yield and downtime for manufacturers. Modern testing methods are being used to assess the risk of sticking at an earlier stage in manufacturing with the possibility of removing the risk in production. Scientific measurements can be used to quantify the risk and find solutions even for existing products.

Sustainability is about working smarter and utilizing the resources we have to optimise tablet development and powder handling for a clean future.

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