Evolution of metrics in pursuit of sustainable API development and manufacture

Abstract: With the climate emergency demanding urgent action from all industries, pharmaceutical companies are increasingly focused on reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across the value chain. The manufacture of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) is often the dominant contributor to a medicine’s carbon footprint, thus route design and process optimisation represent a key opportunity to deliver meaningful climate benefits. Traditionally, the industry has used indicative metrics such as Process Mass Intensity (PMI) as a measure for resource efficiency during API development. While valuable, PMI provides limited insight into the broader environmental consequences of processes, and fails to highlight raw materials with high environmental impact. As a result, it can be challenging to link PMI to organisational sustainability targets or to guide strategic decision making across the value chain. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) offers a holistic method for quantifying environmental impacts and identifying hotspots; however ISO and PAS2090-compliant LCAs are often too complex, costly, and time intensive for rapidly evolving development programmes. To address this gap, AstraZeneca has developed LCA Lite, a streamlined tool enabling scientists to approximate the carbon footprint, water usage and PMI of processes efficiently. Although not as comprehensive as a full LCA, LCA Lite provides meaningful insight into routes and processes, enabling scientists without LCA expertise to make informed decisions with confidence. The tool not only supports identification of high impact raw materials and chemical steps but also facilitates earlier, data driven decision making. By embedding life cycle thinking into routine development, LCA Lite is already influencing route selection, supporting business cases, and informing the prioritisation of sustainability improvement opportunities across the portfolio. This presentation will share examples of how LCA Lite has been applied in development projects and the sustainability insights it has generated.