The pharma sector's problem with plastic

Gary Connors, partner at Oliver Wight looks at why the pharmaceutical sector is lagging behind other sectors in removing plastic from their products and processes?

It remains common practice amongst pharmaceutical manufacturers that single-use plastics are being used extensively in the manufacture of their products and it is common knowledge that this practice is not sustainable. Why then, is the industry struggling to address the problem?  Why is it that an industry that does so much to heal the people on our planet do so little to heal the planet itself?

The answer lies partially in the way the industry is regulated. Incredible care is taken to ensure that all manufacturers adhere to current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). These are laid out in regulations and guidelines that cover much more than manufacturing. The spectrum of topics from clinical practices (used in drug development) and laboratory (used in quality control testing) are all covered. Adhering to these practices assures the patient that the product they are taking is safe and effective. This is a good thing; this is why these regulators exist.  However, some of the practices prescribed in the regulations and guidance are contrary to what you might consider Good Sustainability Practices. There is little guidance on this from the regulators.

Consequently, it is common, even required, for each package of a pharmaceutical raw material, intermediate, or finished good to be packaged in two single-use plastic liners and secured with two single-use plastic ties. Less common, but equally damaging to the environment, is the use of plastic to line the insides of some equipment to avoid the costly cleaning operation that results before the next product is manufactured. The reason is that it is much easier to throw away the liner, put in a new one and get started straight away. It is hard to argue against the need for these regulations when the fact is that they protect the patients at the end of the supply chain taking these drugs. Unfortunately, it is also hard to live with the environmental impact that it is having.

The industry can and needs to do better. They have risen to sustainability challenges before. Going back 30 years the use of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) in the manufacturing process was commonplace, Chloroform and Dichloromethane being chief amongst these. The industry led a global movement to eradicate these chemicals from their manufacturing processes and reversed the depletion of the ozone layer in our atmosphere. If they did this, surely it is now time to address the plastic problem in the industry. It is time for the industry to face this challenge, while single-use plastics make the manufacturing process cleaner, it does not make it greener.

The prevalence of plastic is easily observed in the packaging of products in many other sectors. This allows the consumers to exercise their preferences by adjusting their choices in favour of more environmentally friendly packaging. The pharmaceutical sector is less influenced by the consumers buying power in this regard.  Add to this the fact that the use of plastics in the pharmaceutical sector is hidden in the process and not the packaging.

Consumer awareness will catch up with what is happening beyond the appearance of the product packaging, and they will start to exercise their choices to influence the manufacturing practices too. 

Integrating these assumptions into the decision-making forums in the business, having meaningful discussions about the future scenarios, bringing sustainability metrics onto the executive scorecard, and allowing them to impact executive bonuses seems to be the least that they can do. These recommendations make for good advice but are also the right thing to do. 

It took 30 years to eradicate CFC’s from the manufacturing process. The planet does not have the time nor the patience to wait that long to address the plastics problem. The time to act is now.

Sustainability choices for the industry need to be taken at each step in the integrated business planning process. 

• The portfolio management step should be looking for ways to eradicate single use plastics from the products by design. 
• The demand management step should be looking to understand consumer sentiment and adjust marketing decisions as a result.  They should also be seeking to commercialise their environmental credentials.
• The supply chain step should be finding ways of optimising the planning and scheduling processes to minimise the use of single-use plastics but ultimately to remove them completely.
• The executive team should embrace the introduction of sustainability metrics onto their scorecard and incentivise the executive team to do the right thing.