Supplying Sustainably

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Suppliers of raw materials, lab equipment, manufacturing equipment, and other elements that go into the development and manufacture of bio/pharmaceuticals play an important role in the ecosystem that is sustainable manufacturing. Sponsor companies and contract development and manufacturing companies must ensure that the suppliers they use are following sustainability guidelines to truly produce ‘green’ products.

The environmental impact of ingredients

Stefan Lutz, PhD, SVP of Research at Codexis, a provider of enzymes and enzyme technology platforms, points to organic solvents from petrochemical sources as a “dominating factor” in global warming potential (GWP). “Therefore, technologies that replace organic solvents with aqueous-based processes or enable the design of routes to have fewer organic solvent-using steps are highly desirable in terms of improving this key GWP sustainability metric,” says Lutz. “As an added benefit, enzymatic processes often enable more selective synthesis of target molecules, potentially improving yields and simplifying downstream processing.” For the manufacture of small-molecule drugs, Lutz also points to the use of biocatalysts instead of stoichiometric reagents and rare or precious metal catalysts as potential solutions to for economic or hazardous waste production issues.For large-molecule drugs, such as therapeutic RNA oligonucleotides, Lutz calls out the use of organic solvents as an environmental factor.

“Approximately 3000 kg of acetonitrile is used per kg of RNA produced giving rise to a very large carbon footprint. Enabling higher coupling efficiencies, or fragment-based syntheses, will give higher purity, full-length products that could require less or even no further purification, which is a significant contributor to overall solvent use.”

Codexis has focused on sustainability since the company was founded in 2002, and its enzymatic solutions for API synthesis, asserts Lutz, create higher yields with reduced energy use and less waste. Oligonucleotide manufacturing, for example, uses traditional chemical processes, according to Lutz, that create hazardous reagents and chemical waste and are energy intensive. “By contrast, biocatalytic processes using enzymes generally require milder conditions, utilize renewable resources, and generate less hazardous waste,” he explains.

“Codexis is currently launching its first-in-class Enzyme Catalyzed Oligonucleotide (ECO) Synthesis manufacturing platform to provide a highly versatile and effective tool box for production of therapeutic RNA oligonucleotides. The ECO Synthesis platform addresses critical sustainability challenges of traditional manufacturing methods by eliminating the reliance on hazardous chemicals and significantly decreasing the use of acetonitrile,” Lutz says.

Sustainable manufacturing solutions

Ecolab—which provides contamination control strategies and solutions, water management programs, and resins for downstream purification—uses greener chemistry principles, material and energy sourcing, and packaging initiatives, according to Christine Yore, vice president, Enterprise Corporate Accounts, Ecolab Global Life Sciences. The sustainable manufacture of biopharmaceuticals is challenged by high water consumption, refrigeration energy demands, and chemical and plastic waste generation, according to Yore. Closed-loops systems and water recycling are key to combat these challenges. The company’s Water for Climate program offers a way for companies to optimize water use across operations, therefore reducing water consumption and minimizing the impact on the environment. “We are also seeing that Digital technology is also playing a key role in sustainability initiatives,” says Yore. “Our Ecolab 3D technology provides key insights to our customers by tracking and monitoring water quality and water flow.” Yore also points to the company’s ion-exchange resin and jetting technologies and its cleaning, disinfection, and decontamination products that help improve operations while reducing environmental impacts. Ecolab has committed to sourcing enough clean electricity via a wind farm to power all of its European operations by 2030. Additionally, in 2023, responsible packaging practices at its facilities avoided 14.5 million pounds of virgin plastic use.”

Verdot, which supplies purification systems for the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals and gene therapies, has been proactively anticipating the sustainability requirements of the companies that use their systems by embedding sustainability into their operations, according to Charles Ruban, president and CEO, Verdot. As part of its sustainability strategy, the company launched carbon compensation initiatives in 2025.

“We have achieved one of the lowest carbon footprints, averaging 100 tons equivalent carbon of equivalent carbon per billion euro in revenue,” says Ruban. “And we’ve done that through eco design, you know, really optimizing the material usage of our products and really selecting appropriately the sustainable supplier that we wanted to work with. … [we are] designing energy efficient equipment that [optimize] material use, and we’re partnering with suppliers committed to systemic sustainability, so our carbon neutral initiative reflects the commitment of overcoming those models while enabling compliance to globally reduce their environmental footprint.”

About the author

Susan Haigney is lead editor for Pharmaceutical Technology®.

Article details

Pharmaceutical Technology®/Pharmaceutical Technology® Europe/BioPharm International®
eBook: Bio/Pharma Outsourcing Innovation 2025
February 2025
Pages: 20

Citation

When referring to this article, please cite it as Haigney, S. Supplying Sustainably. Pharmaceutical Technology Bio/Pharma Outsourcing Innovation eBook. February 2025.