Excipient Sustainability – A user and a supplier perspective

According to the United Nations (UN) World Commission on Environment and Development, environmental sustainability is about acting in a way that ensures future generations have the natural resources available to live an equal, if not better, way of life as current generations. But sustainability is also used interchangeably with green, natural and eco-friendly so what do we really mean when we talk about excipient sustainability?

Excipients are the inactive ingredients in a drug formulation, but they are more than just fillers in a final drug product. They are functional ingredients, providing key benefits such as solubilisation, stabilisation, delivery enhancement, and formulation preservation. Until recently the supply of sustainable excipients focused on high quality, regulatory compliance, security of supply and integrity. This aligned with the sustainability priorities for excipient users and drug developers which focused on safety, access to medicines, affordability, ethics and supply chain management (1). But in recent years the climate crisis and plastic pollution have driven an environmental consciousness within corporations, governments and with consumers. The pharmaceutical sector has recognised the role they need to play in saving the planet as well as people.