Biopharma Companies Working to Battle Climate Change

The effect climate change has on human health and well-being is far too significant to be overlooked. The weather conditions have become extreme across the globe and brought harm to people’s health and businesses.

Change in Earth’s climate has also increased the severity of various diseases and health conditions like asthma, worsened mental illnesses, and increased the range of infections.

In 2018, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that we need to bring our greenhouse gas emissions down to half by 2030 in order to avoid any further extreme changes to the climate. For the planet to sustain and people to live healthy lives, meaningful changes need to start being made.

At the World Economic Forum’s Sustainable Development Impact Summit in September 2021, climate activist Gonzalo Munoz warned delegates that the carbon footprint of the biopharma sector is bound to triple by the year 2050. The industry is evolving and growing at a fast pace, and it has become crucial that the emissions leading to climate change are kept under check more actively.

Over many years, the average weather conditions in a location become the climate of the place. A shift in these average weather conditions is climate change. Greenhouse gases that are being released due to various human activities surround the earth and trap heat. This heat causes global warming.

Manufacturing goods and power generation use fossil fuels to carry out countless processes. Burning fossil fuels are one of the most significant causes of greenhouse gas emissions. Deforestation is another leading cause of emissions as trees release a large amount of carbon when they are cut.

The pharma industry aims to provide for people and ensure they are healthy, and climate change strikes at the core of this belief. Unexpected and extreme weather events affect the financial stability and overall structure of big pharma. If there is a weather catastrophe anywhere in the world, it can still disrupt the supply chains for the pharmaceutical sector in the United States.

For example, when Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, it took many lives and destroyed power lines. The damage caused also resulted in supply chains being disrupted, and hospitals in the U.S. faced shortages in crucial IV fluid supply. Puerto Rico manufactures IV bags that are used all over the country, and the plants that are used to produce the bags were damaged severely. Nurses had to inject medications from a syringe very slowly instead of letting the medicine drip from an IV bag.

The public health sector realizes that they have to fight climate change on all fronts, even pharma companies. Not only do extreme weather events take lives, but they also have numerous other effects on the pharma industry. As a sector that aims to provide help for people’s health, tackling climate change is crucial. If climate policies continue to be optimized over the next eighty years, around 74 million lives could potentially be saved.

The biopharma industry works to help victims of climate and, at the same time, actively takes part in addressing the problems. In the U.S., pharmaceutical companies and other health-related industries are responsible for 8.5% of the entire country’s greenhouse gas emissions. The pharmaceutical sector is a significant part of global emissions, which is why they cannot take the backseat when it comes to dealing with climate change.

Many large biopharma companies in the United States have shown a willingness to reduce their carbon footprint due to the attention drawn to the sector’s emissions at a recent global economic forum. Some of the biggest biopharma companies have already started implementing more environment-friendly practices.

Novartis has started recycling and re-using solvents and catalysts that are used for medicine production. These catalysts and solvents have a high greenhouse gas impact and are harmful to the environment. Novartis is a pharma company using the latest technologies to reduce the use of extra materials for the manufacturing process. Doing this can help save 5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030.

Takeda has adopted a new manufacturing process to produce one of its molecules. This environment-friendly process results in 93% less use of organic solvent, 78% less water waste, and 46% less water use. The company has committed to bringing its net down to zero. Takeda has already reduced its emissions by 51% since 2016. It has also introduced a project at their manufacturing site in Lessines which helps recycle wastewater.

Annually, Janssen manages to save 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and saves close to 100 tonnes of chemicals. The company has various initiatives in place, which help it be one of the more environment-friendly pharma companies. Janssen has a “Plant on a Truck” program that uses mobile purification plants to treat water. The useful materials gathered from the wastewater through this initiative are then re-used to manufacture various drugs and supplements.

In 2019, Orion shifted to renewable electricity entirely in Finland. The company has made constant efforts to reduce its carbon footprint through various energy efficiency projects. Orion focuses on tackling the impact of inhalers on the environment. The company produces powdered inhalers that are free of propellants. These inhalers have a 10-37 times lower carbon footprint than regular inhalers that are pressurized.

When items are created, used and disposed of, their life cycle assessment shows the impact they will have on global warming and the planet’s health. Like any other industry or sector, the pharma sector also provides consumers with choices at every step. They can choose which procedures and products are more environment-friendly and whether they want to use reusable items.

If lifecycle assessments for pharmaceutical products are readily available, consumers can make more informed decisions. Surgeons can use tools and equipment that are better for the environment and have a lower global warming potential. Patients can also make better decisions and understand the impact their choice will have on the climate.

Making decisions that are good for the environment can also be easy when the decisions are also beneficial for the patients. One example comes from the field of anesthesiology. The two most common anesthetic medicines used are propofol and desflurane. Desflurane is a hydrofluorocarbon gas that has to be inhaled by the patient to induce anesthesia, whereas propofol is a liquid that has to be infused into the patient.

Desflurane is exhaled into the atmosphere, and the impact it has on the environment is more than a hundred times worse than propofol. When desflurane is exhaled and reaches the atmosphere, it lasts for up to ten years. Finding out this information has motivated an international effort to stop the use of desflurane unless it is entirely evident that the use of desflurane will be exponentially more beneficial for the patient.

Sustainability is the future of every industry, including the biopharma sector. The change in climate and the adverse impact it has had on public health makes it an issue that needs to be tackled by pharma companies all over the world. It is more important than ever that the biopharma companies take action to reduce carbon emissions, pollution, waste, etc.

Some companies have already taken various initiatives that help in the battle against climate change. It is imperative that the pharma sector does everything it can to reduce its carbon footprint.