HSM: Baling waste for recycling

control exist while the product is within the ownership of the pharma company. As the pack progresses on its journey towards the patient, these controls lessen with the last step of the last mile (post healthcare provider involvement and prior to patient usage) potentially having no controls or monitoring in place. Serialisation has already demonstrated the possibilities of a co-ordinated approach to anti-counterfeiting and product tracking, and the opportunity exists to take a similar approach to important areas such as maintaining appropriate product storage environmental conditions.

Supply chain efficiency (and waste reduction) The lack of unit level monitoring and control lead to a lack of understanding of the actual handling and storage of the pack, during its journey from pharma through to patient. As a result, pharma can apply a worst-case scenario to where there are concerns or lack of information about how a product has been handled and stored. As a direct consequence, perfectly acceptable products can be destroyed resulting in unnecessary costs and potentially impacting the patient through nonavailability at a critical juncture.

Patient outcomes (and engagement) Driven, in part, by the increasing use of digital solutions in the home over lockdown(s), the general population is becoming increasingly digitally aware and knowledgeable. There is an opportunity to use packaging as a way to better engage with the patient potentially supporting improved adherence and patient outcomes. A simple use case here would be to leverage the DataMatrix codes on each pack to give the patient a digital link to an electronic patient information leaflet (PIL). This e-PIL can be regularly updated at the software end and also provide instructions to the patient specifically tailored to them, eg to support them if they have visual impairments or speak a different language to the market in which the medicines were purchased.

Embracing innovation There is currently significant opportunity for pharma to embrace digital supply chain technologies to reduce their costs, improve their sustainability (through reducing losses and improving patient adherence), and enhance patient adherence.

On the whole, the technology exists; what is missing is a joinedup approach and large-scale implementation alongside the evolving digital healthcare infrastructure. One way we could do this is to redeploy the novel collaboration models such as the CPI “Grand Challenges” where we bring together companies in the pre-competitive space to solve an industry-wide challenge that is difficult for one company or stakeholder to solve on their own. Here, all partners can work together, pooling resources and sharing expertise for the mutual benefit of the industry.

With the correct challenge definition, this is truly a win-win for all involved, as well as providing longer term economic and society impact. Where hardware gaps exist, electronics, such as that which can be developed and scaled by CPI, can quickly be deployed. Giving each pack a unique ID through printed codes, through wireless (non-line of site) smart tags such as NFC or RFID, enables it to be tracked throughout the supply chain. It also enables personalisation of services for the patient leveraging the connectivity and cloud infrastructure already deployed. Building in sensing and data logging, such as for temperature, humidity or shock, can bring additional value through high granularity supply chain environmental monitoring. This can give demonstratable assurance of the maintenance of the correct supply chain conditions and ultimately drug condition.

Now is the time for companies to start developing and deploying these digital product solutions to make the pharma industry not only more sustainable but reduce costs and provide better patient support. As an industry, we need to innovate as well as learn from other industries that are already adopting digital technologies.

Finding the right balance

By Yves Steffen, Director Global Sustainability, SHL Medical AG

With pressure from customers, investors and society, it is not always easy to set the right targets and to keep control over activities that will drive companies to a sustainable future.

ow can you ensure you set the right targets and create the transparency required of your products for external partners? How can the right focus areas be identified, and success made measurable?

A common way to calculate the footprint of a product is life-cycle analysis evaluations, showing in an easy and understandable way where the biggest contributing factors are to continuously improve your product in the materials, production methods and supply chain used.

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is the standardised method of calculating and evaluating the impact of, for example, a product on the environment throughout its life cycle. During an LCA, a large amount of emission data is collected – from energy production, waste, raw materials, etc. During the impact assessment of an LCA, the different emissions are united into actionable numbers, which are converted into one unit that translates into one impact category. One relevant impact category is global warming (measured in kg CO2eq), which is an indicator of global warming potential (GWP) caused by greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions. The LCA data can be divided in three major areas: raw materials used for manufacturing, energy consumption to produce, and packaging and storage/transport. To set the right priorities, some key elements to reduce the environmental impact on these categories will be discussed.

GHG are usually categorised in three different scopes:

SCOPE 1

Emissions are direct emissions from owned or controlled sources SCOPE 2

Emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy SCOPE 3

Emissions are all indirect emissions (not included in scope 2) that occur in the value chain of a company, incl both upstream and downstream