Leiden Researchers Pioneer 'Green' Framework For Sustainable Drug Development

Medical drugs are expensive to make and can have an adverse effect on the environment. Researchers Stefano Cucurachi and Justin Lian have developed a framework to help the healthcare system assess the economic and environmental sustainability of medical compounds.

With a growing and ageing population, and more people living with chronic disease, healthcare costs are rising and the pharmaceutical industry is expanding fast. Patients and healthcare professionals are also beginning to wonder about the environmental impact of medicines But information on this is lacking. ‘Some sources claim 10% of all pharmaceuticals have an environmental risk, but only the smallest fraction has ever been assessed’, says Associate Professor of Industrial Ecology Stefano Cucurachi.

Greener decisions
Together with environmental engineering postdoc Justin Lian, Cucurachi developed a framework to map both the environmental impact and development costs of pharmaceutical ingredients. The framework can help guide greener decision-making in pharmaceutical manufacturing, and is relevant to both industry and policy. The research is part of the LIFE GREENAPI-project.

Based on a COVID-drug
The researchers based their framework on an environmental and economic assessment of nine synthetic routes for Molnupiravir, a broad-spectrum antiviral drug used to treat COVID-19. ‘We could do this thanks to a collaboration with a Chinese pharmaceutical university that can synthesise active pharmaceutical ingredients’, says Cucurachi. ‘We used their primary data to assess the preferable ways of synthesising this compound from both an environmental sustainability and a cost perspective.’

Solvent use and process design
Lian adds, ‘We found that solvent use and process design dominate the environmental footprint and the cost of production. Some solvents are quite toxic and have a big impact on the environment, whereas biocatalysts have a low impact and low costs. And they have the potential to be produced on an industrial scale.’

Scrutiny
The framework could have a big impact, says Cucurachi. ‘There’s a lot of scrutiny of pharmaceuticals before they’re administered to humans because of potential adverse effects, but they could also harm the environment. You’d want to know that early on in the drug development process rather than after these substances have been deployed on a large scale.’

Several Dutch stakeholders have expressed an interest in the researchers’ framework. ‘We’re currently involved in Enkore, a large European research project with partners from the whole healthcare system value chain: from pharmaceutical companies to hospitals, and patient representatives to company innovators. As researchers, we’re constantly being asked to join these kinds of initiatives – that was unheard of two or three years ago.’