Sweden calls for EU action on sustainable medicine

Published: 11-Jan-2016

Asks European Commission to draft a strategy to achieve this goal


Sweden's government has called on the European Union (EU) Council of Ministers for the European Commission to take concrete measures to promote the sustainable production, consumption and waste management of medicinal products.

In a detailed policy document circulated to EU ministers, Sweden has called for the Commission to draft a strategy to achieve this goal across the EU. This policy, said Stockholm, should take account of the risks of developing microbial resistance from pharmaceutical residues; require and update environmental testing to take better account of specific properties of active pharmaceutical ingredients; and help ensure that environmental data submitted through market approval applications be made easily available to regulators, research institutions, healthcare institutions and water companies – 'to facilitate assessment and mitigation of risks'.

Notably, said Sweden, EU pharmaceutical legislation in future should include addressing concerns about the discharge and emissions of active ingredients from pharmaceutical manufacturing outside the EU.

'Various scientific studies also recognise that emissions from production sites outside the EU contribute to the development of drug-resistant micro-organisms that risk being spread worldwide,' it noted.

The Swedish government's note added that the performance of take-back systems needs to be strengthened; and the development and testing of new techniques for removing active pharmaceutical ingredients in waste water treatment plants should be promoted.

The note said: 'Pharmaceutical substances are often engineered so that they remain unchanged during their passage through the human body. Unfortunately, this stability means that they also persist outside the human body, mainly ending up in the aquatic environment. The substances are discharged into the environment at manufacturing sites and through excretion by patients via waste water treatment plants.'

Noting that improper disposal of medicines and leakage from sewage sludge can also boost residue contamination, it added that tackling pharmaceutical-based water pollution is of 'mutual concern for health, environment and agriculture ministers'.

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