ETERNAL: Boosting the reduction of the environmental impact of pharmaceutical products throughout their entire life cycle

ETERNAL aims to contribute to sustainable development of pharmaceutical manufacture, use and disposal, by using and promoting full life cycle approaches covering design, manufacture, usage, and disposal, assessing the environmental risks of not only the API and residues/metabolites, but other chemicals and by-products of the production process. This type of approach is essential to take into consideration the types of green manufacturing approach under consideration by the pharmaceutical industry, as evidenced by the range and scope of case studies being undertaken within ETERNAL. Specific application of our risk and life cycle assessment approaches to the ETERNAL case studies is a key element of the proposed work and will provide industry and policymakers with key examples of how whole life cycle assessment may be used to evaluate the changes in environmental impacts expected due to the introduction of green manufacturing processes.