We recognise that the potential impact of our products on the environment can occur throughout the lifecycle of the materials from which our products are made (see Pharmaceuticals in the Environment). The risk of adverse impacts can normally be reduced or eliminated by considering environmental issues carefully during the product development process. However, pharmaceuticals generate major challenges in this respect, since there is usually very limited flexibility to modify the active molecule to improve its environmental profile whilst preserving its efficacy and minimising any potential side effects.
We are continually working to improve the way environmental issues are considered in process development, asset design and marketing by developing procedures that continuously improve the integration of SHE considerations into the product development process, based, in part, on whole lifecycle techniques.
Asthma is a common, often debilitating illness that can be alleviated by breathing in medication from a small aerosol called a pressurised metered dose inhaler (pMDI), which uses propellant gases to deliver the medicine to a patient’s airways. When CFCs, the gases used originally in pMDIs, were identified as ozone-depleting gases, we worked to develop alternatives. Our Turbuhaler dry powder inhaler, launched in 1987, does not require a propellant gas, but it is not suitable for all patients. We therefore developed and are introducing alternative propellant gases for our pMDIs, which have no ozone depletion potential and significantly less than half the global warming potential of the CFCs they replace. Although these HFA (hydrofluoroalkanes) propellants still have some impact on climate change, there is an international consensus that there is no safer alternative for patients.
During 2007, we introduced a new asthma treatment, Symbicort, in the US, where over 30 million people suffer from this debilitating disease. Our new therapy provides rapid and effective asthma control in a pMDI containing HFA propellant. The launch of this new therapy in the US will inevitably lead to an increase in emissions of HFAs as more and more patients benefit from the new medicine. Despite the potential climate change implications, we believe that the expanded treatment choice and potential benefits that Symbicort pMDI offers asthma sufferers outweigh the potential impact it will have on our environmental performance.
We will continue to work hard to manage our impact, and our new climate change target aims to ensure that our absolute emissions in 2010 will be no greater than they were at the start of the decade and 40% less than they were in 1990. Although the greenhouse gas emissions from our business operations will continue to fall, as a result of the launch of Symbicort pMDI in 2007, we will not be able to continue to achieve the reductions of total greenhouse gases (including emissions from products) that we have delivered each year since 2000.
We are committed to achieving our 2010 target without compromising our ability to provide new inhalation therapies that bring benefit for patients. Therefore the climate change objectives approved by the AstraZeneca Board in 2005 require very substantial efforts to be made across our business to produce, by 2010, an absolute reduction of 12% in global warming emissions from all sources other than pMDIs, when compared with 2005. (See also http://www.ipacmdi.com for further information about the use of CFC propellants and the pharmaceutical industry).
In 2007, continuing decline in sales of our CFC-driven inhalers resulted in a further 11% decrease in our overall release of ozone depleting substances. Metered Dose Inhalers | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | Change |
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Global Warming Potential
(million tonnes C02 equivalent) | | | | | 0.35 | -3% | | Index (tonnes/$m sales) | | | | | 12 | -13% | Ozone Depletion Potential
(tonnes CFC-11 equivalent) | | | | | 36 | -11% | | Index (kg/$million sales) | | | | | 1.2 | -20% | | The reference point for change is 2005. The figures in the table above have been rounded. Please note that percentage changes have been calculated using the data prior to rounding. |
We believe that packaging has an important role to play in contributing to sustainable development. Packaging that protects products helps to prevent waste, reduces environmental impact, and avoids economic loss. Environmental considerations are taken into account at an early stage of development, as in many cases it is difficult to improve the environmental characteristics of packaging or a device once a product is on the market. Packaging and devices are designed and manufactured to allow recycling of a certain percentage by weight or have a minimum calorific value to allow optimisation of energy recovery. However, pharmaceutical packaging materials or devices may not always be recyclable; some devices cannot be fully emptied or are overfilled to ensure that the patient has the required amount of doses available.
We believe that assessment of packaging sustainability should incorporate the whole life-cycle of the packaging, which among other things involves the materials we purchase, how we purchase them, the manufacturing processes, transport of products and final disposal. Projects started during 2007 involve work that aims to reduce the complexity of packaging and to understand the real value of our packaging to fulfil end user needs.
In Europe, there is often a requirement to distribute pharmaceutical tablets packaged in 'blister packs'. The conventional packaging material used is polyvinylchloride (PVC) which, along with the related polymer polyvinylidine chloride (PVdC), is one of the most commonly used materials due to its appropriate characteristics. To reduce emissions resulting from disposal of packaging waste in Japan, major pharmaceutical companies have voluntarily changed their blister packaging materials. During 2004, we exchanged PVC material with polypropylene (PP) blister packaging for all tablet products for the local market in Japan, and we have also transferred the local Swedish product Alvedon to PP mono blister packaging during 2005. We continue to look for opportunities to use more environmentally friendly and ergonomic packaging materials and practices to minimize the solid waste stream from our package development and commercial packaging processes.
Our packaging facility in Spain is continually working to minimise packaging waste as outlined in their site improvement plans. The reduction of waste associated with sales products and manufacturing waste during 2006-2007 is estimated to be 25 tonnes per year.
During the late stage development of Symbicort pMDI, improvements were required in the packaging of the product in order to improve both manufacturing and transportation robustness. Modifications to the overwrap packaging materials and process significantly reduced manufacturing failures and wastage of packaging materials in the production environment.
Another driver for this improvement was damage seen to the product after transport, as early product configurations had exhibited a failure rate of greater than 15%. To address this, the overall volume of the outer carton was reduced by almost 50%. This ensured a better fit of the overwrapped product within the carton, thus minimising any movement during transportation. This was a significant achievement as the view of the assembly machine suppliers was that inserting the product into a much smaller carton would be extremely difficult. However, by challenging and working in partnership with these suppliers, the assembly process was revised. The reduction in carton volume has given significant benefits:
Storage and shipping - As a result of the smaller carton 38% more product can be packed into the same space, resulting in a significant drop in the airfreight usage for supply to the United States - the principal market for Symbicort pMDI.
Packaging - As the carton is almost half the size of earlier versions, the material content for packaging of Symbicort pMDI has also been significantly reduced.
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