Cirularity & renewable chemicals: A roadmap for sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing

Abstract: This presentation summarizes the ACS GCI Pharmaceutical Roundtable's roadmap initiative to improve circularity and use of renewable chemicals in pharmaceutical manufacturing over the next 20 years. Production of input materials, including solvents, reagents, and starting materials, is a primary driver of carbon footprint for synthetic molecule medicines. Input materials derived from renewable feedstocks often have a lower carbon footprint than fossil-derived alternatives today and have the potential to achieve net-zero climate impact in the future. At the same time, recovering and reusing materials both reduces demand for environmentally costly virgin materials and mitigates the impacts of waste disposal. These two strategies are most likely to succeed when deployed together. Although renewable materials are often more costly and less readily available than their fossil-derived counterparts, improving circularity in pharmaceutical manufacturing provides a way to reduce overall material demand, making it more feasible to source renewable materials.