New Centre Aims to Make Medicine More Sustainable
Medicines can save lives, but they also contribute significantly to the CO2 emissions. A new centre will focus on finding ways to reduce the climate impact of pharmaceuticals, thereby making Danish pharmacology more sustainable.
The Danish healthcare sector accounts for 6% of the total CO2 emissions of the country, whereof 25% come from pharmaceuticals.
"The healthcare system was developed without considering the climate. We need to address that. To solve the climate crisis, every sector in society needs to explore how they can reduce their CO2 emissions. This includes pharmacology, and it is natural for us at the SDU Climate Cluster to collaborate with OUH on the new Centre for Research in Sustainable Medicine," says the Head of SDU Climate Cluster, Professor Sebastian Mernild.
He explains that the SDU Climate Cluster is a place where researchers from various disciplines can collaborate scientifically and interdisciplinarily on green initiatives.
“If we want to see societal change, we need to foster cross-disciplinary collaboration and bring together different fields of expertise,” he says.
Wasting Anesthesia Medication
The new centre, led by Sidsel Arnspang Pedersen, who is a clinical pharmacologist at the Department of Clinical Research at OUH, will not be performing examinations of pills under a magnifying glass.
Instead, the focus will be on observing activities in hospitals - especially identifying areas where CO2 equivalents can be saved in the climate accounts. Speaking with Dagens Medicin, Arnspang Pedersen shares that she and her colleagues have already visited hospitals in Odense and Svendborg to investigate the extent of medication waste.
"In the bins for medical waste, we found many plastic syringes with Propofol, a short-acting anesthetic given intravenously during surgeries. These made up 30% of the medical waste. Propofol is administered in pre-filled syringes, so a lot of the medicine is discarded. We can now work with manufacturers to investigate how we can reduce this waste. Perhaps the medicine can be provided in vials with longer shelf lives, but changing this would require an approval from the Danish Medicines Agency," she tells in Dagens Medicin.
Centre for Research in Sustainable Medicine
The centre is supported by the Region of Southern Denmark, Pharmacology OUH and the SDU Climate Cluster. It aims to conduct research, gather knowledge and offer guidance. The centre is led by Associate Professor Sidsel Arnspang Pedersen (the Department of Clinical Research and OUH), and the team includes Chief Physician Mette Marie Hougaard Christensen (OUH), Professor Sebastian Mernild (SDU Climate Cluster), Physician Anne Thykjær Petersen (the Department of Clinical Research and OUH), and PhD student and physician Katrine Bitsch Johansen (OUH).
The centre is located in the new SUND building, which connects SDU's campus with the New OUH. Engineers from the Faculty of Engineering and the SDU Climate Cluster will also be involved, helping to calculate the climate impact of medications through life cycle analyses - from raw materials and production to transport, use and waste.
Environmentally Impactful Leaflets
Strict regulations on pharmaceuticals can hinder efforts to reduce CO2 emissions. This includes requirements for package leaflets, explains Sidsel Arnspang Pedersen to Dagens Medicin.
“EU regulations require a leaflet in every medicine package. We have shown in a previous project that these leaflets have a considerable climate footprint. Alternatives, such as a QR code, are currently being explored.”
Other projects the centre plans to work on include:
- Recycling of Medicine: In Denmark, it is illegal to reissue unused medicine due to concerns about proper storage. However, in the Netherlands, unused medicine is dispensed in sealed bags with temperature loggers. If returned, the medicine will be inspected and can be redistributed to new patients.
- The Most Sustainable Treatment for Eye Diseases: Centre researcher Anne Thykjær Petersen will compare three drugs used to treat wet AMD, an eye disease, to identify the most sustainable option. She will conduct a life cycle analysis to assess the overall climate impact of each drug.
- Powder Instead of Spray for Respiratory Treatment: Twenty percent of asthma and COPD patients use spray inhalers instead of powder. The problem is that the spray contains Norfluran, a potent greenhouse gas. Physician and PhD student Katrine Bitsch Johansen will investigate, why so many patients still use the spray, as switching to powder could be a relatively simple green initiative.
Healthcare Workers are Eager to Take Action
According to Sidsel Arnspang Pedersen, healthcare workers are eager to make a difference. She tells Dagens Medicin:
"We receive numerous inquiries from all levels of the healthcare sector - porters, nurses, pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and assistants.” “There is too much plastic and cardboard, and we throw away medicines – can we not recycle them?” they ask. “They need information and guidance.”