Financial pressures on healthcare systems, staff shortages and an ageing population are fuelling the current trend of self-administration of medication for patients suffering from chronic illnesses. Many patients also prefer the convenience of receiving treatment at home rather than having to travel to a hospital or clinic.It all adds up to a boom in the use of drug delivery systems – and devices that are easier to use, safer and more effective.
A side effect of this, however, is that more drug delivery systems have been designed to be disposable in a bid to improve safety and usability. Disposable devices typically require fewer operating steps than reusable ones and, because they have a finite life, they are less susceptible to wear and contamination.
Drug delivery devices have also become more mechanically sophisticated, with the addition of safety features such as dose counters. And a growing range of polymers has enabled improvements in performance and reliability – but added to the challenge of recycling, as many devices now contain a mix of different materials.
Against this background, life-cycle assessment (LCA) is playing an increasingly important role in helping drug delivery device manufacturers navigate a path to a more sustainable approach to product design and development. It offers a way to evaluate the environmental impact of drug delivery devices and avoid the pitfalls of seemingly obvious sustainability decisions that might have unintended negative consequences elsewhere in the supply chain.
The Owen Mumford approach
To simplify the complex process of conducting LCAs, Owen Mumford Pharmaceutical Services has developed a life-cycle-based eco-design tool that allows manufacturers to autonomously model any product concept across any supply chain – from conception to disposal.
The tool takes into account 17 potential impact categories for devices – including climate change, fossil and mineral resources, and water and land use. The categories are associated with potential negative effects such as damage to resource availability, damage to ecosystems or damage to human health.
An estimated impact for each category can be obtained by inputting the parameters of a device, together with supply chain and distribution information. Different product concepts and configurations can be assessed within the tool by changing material choices, component weights, packaging, manufacturing location and so on right through to the product’s end of life.
The tool is designed to produce results in a format that is easy to understand and communicate so that it is clear why different designs do or do not work from an environmental perspective. Projections can be fed into research and development work to ensure sustainability is prioritised from the start of a project.
Piecing the puzzle
LCAs enable several different scenarios to be compared right at the start of design work to understand potential interactions between various aspects of sustainability. It can help shed light on where maximum environmental benefits are to be gained, especially when considering global supply chains.
Key sustainable design strategies include using recycled materials, deploying renewable energy and designing for circularity. But this may not be as straightforward as it sounds. For instance, giving a medical device a more robust design to enable it to be reused sounds like an obvious choice. But the benefits could be outweighed if the device is heavier as a result and the environmental costs of transporting it are therefore higher.
When it comes to renewable energy, it involves more than just looking at whether a supplier reports using renewable energy. The underlying financial mechanism also has to be considered to see whether a purchase with the supplier will lead to further investment in renewable energy generation.
Clearly, the environmental challenges facing drug delivery devices manufacturers are complex but they also bring new opportunities. With innovative design underpinned by LCA, the next generation of drug delivery devices can be more sustainable as well as more cost effective and better for patients.