Creating a Safe Path to Sustainability in Drug Delivery

The environmental impact of the healthcare industry has been widely reported, with estimates it is responsible for around 4–5 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions.¹ As well as initiatives to combat scope 1 and 2 emissions — directly and indirectly generated by healthcare institutions — the industry is relying on partners in the broader value chain to reduce their emissions too (scope 3).

Pharmaceutical companies and medical device makers have a part to play here, to minimize the impact of the drugs and devices they manufacture. Of course, any attempts to create more sustainable products must not be at the expense of patient safety or the effectiveness of treatments. Our task is therefore to commit to a viable plan for improving sustainability, methodically working through areas where easy gains can be made, then taking on riskier and more complex areas.

Scaling Down Plastic Use

There is no denying that, by necessity, many medical devices are single-use and made of petroleum-based plastics. Estimates suggest plastics makes up around 25 percent of all healthcare waste in the United States and often the disposal method is unkind to the environment, with material incinerating or ending up in landfill ^2,3 Most of this waste (70 percent) comes from commodity plastics used to make tubing, films, packaging, connectors, labware, IV bags and more.⁴

Devices such as syringes and other intravenous administration systems make up part of the remaining waste. With these higher risk products, there are also competing factors of drug stability, anti-contamination, and infection control that need to be considered when choosing materials. And so, it is more sensible to focus initial efforts on reducing plastic use in low-risk products where progress can be made faster and without undue risk to patients.

There is clearly significant work going into the research and development of recycled materials or bio-based plastics as a replacement for petroleum-based plastics in drug delivery devices. However, these materials are not currently at the required standard or production levels to support the industry.

Practical management of the situation will rely on collaboration between stakeholders across the industry, coming together to create a realistic transition plan towards more sustainable materials. For the moment, meeting current demand levels as well as safety and compliance criteria relies on the continued production of single-use devices. However, these devices can still be optimized to minimize environmental impact.

Facilitating Recycling

Drug-delivery device manufacturers can approach sustainability from multiple angles during the earliest stages of development. The journey to more sustainable devices considers the entire lifecycle, covering concept development, material selection, design and engineering, manufacturing, packaging, transportation, sales, use, and end-of-life disposal.

Manufacturers are already looking at some of these key concepts through manufacturing efficiency, time to market, risk reduction, safety and regulatory compliance and packaging and transportation costs. But more drive is needed to extend these disciplines into further areas to improve energy efficiency, material use and recycling, for instance.

Creating products that are easier and cheaper to recycle entails ease of disassembly. Optimizing device size, simplifying design and reducing packaging has the added benefit of reducing waste and transportation costs too. The replacement of metal components with suitable polymers can also significantly reduce the carbon impact of processing and shipping without compromising the device itself.

While some therapies are now incorporating reusable digital devices as a method of treatment, the majority will need to retain a disposable element to meet regulatory and safety requirements. The cost of disposable electronics would not be viable or acceptable in light of electronic disposal regulations. With auto-injectors, the most compelling solution for creating a connected or digital product is therefore to design a disposable unit within a reliably reusable ‘shell’.

Designing for Sustainability

At Owen Mumford Pharmaceutical Services, we created our Aidaptus® auto-injector with a wide design envelope, for compatibility with a range of formulations, fill volumes, needle sizes and primary containers. Crucially, this offers pharma companies flexibility during development, meaning that modifications to drug formulation and dosage do not necessitate a switch to a different device.

This also reduces risk by removing the need for additional verification testing, human factors studies and regulatory submissions. In turn, this reduces overall product impact, and since Aidaptus can support multiple drugs in a company’s product line, this also streamlines manufacturing facilities, improving efficiency and reducing waste.

Investing in Sustainable Change

It is likely we will see changes to the materials used in our drug delivery devices in the future, but in the meantime, healthcare organizations need to deliver the best possible solutions with the tools available. Product usability and patient safety remain paramount in the creation of new devices and any proposed changes must be thoroughly evaluated for their potential impact before being implemented. Knowledge-sharing between buyers and suppliers, and among the wider industry, will facilitate and speed up moves towards greater sustainability in the drug delivery sector.

References

1. Imogen Tennison, et al., “Health care's response to climate change: a carbon footprint assessment of the NHS in England,” The Lancet Planetary Health, 2021: Vol. 5 Issue 2, https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(20)30271-0/fulltext
2. Sarah Gibbons, “Can Medical Care Exist Without Plastic?” National Geographic, October 4, 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/can-medical-care-exist-without-plastic#:~:text=Did%20You%20Know%3F,to%2025%20percent%20is%20plastic
3. Measuring and Reducing Plastics in the Healthcare Sector, Brussels: HCWH Europe, https://europe.noharm.org/sites/default/files/documents-files/6886/2021-09-23-measuring-and-reducing-plastics-in-the-healthcare-sector.pdf
4. Blessy, J. James, J et al. (2021), “Recycling of medical plastics,” Advanced Industrial and Engineering Polymer Research, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2542504821000348

This article was written by Alex Fong, Head of Insight & Olivia Houselander, Business Development Manager, Owen Mumford Pharmaceutical Services. For more information, visit www.ompharmaservices.com .

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