Pharmaceutical Industry as an Epicenter of Green Chemistry: A Perspective

Dr. Rakeshwar Bandichhor

Healthcare demands the affordable medicines that led the phenomenal growth of pharmaceutical production unfortunately at the expense of environmental wellness up to great extent. The pharmaceutical industry has become one of the most waste producing sectors with one of the highest unfavourable E-factors as a measure of the quantity of waste produced, compared to the amount of useful material obtained [1-4]. Significant amounts of the chemistry that are practiced to produce the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) are old, obsolete and waste producing. As a result, the vital environmental elements are often compromised and become a casualty of speed of development and short term gain.

Global demand for environmentally friendly pharmaceutical processes and products requires the development of novel and cost-effective approaches to pollution prevention. One of the most attractive concepts for pollution prevention is green chemistry, which is best defined as the utilization of a set of principles that reduces or eliminates the use or generation of hazardous substances in the design, manufacture, and applications of chemical products [5]. Appropriate utilization of these Green Principles frequently requires the redesign of chemical products or processes from fundamental perspective. Driven by improved process conditions and economics, ever-increasing environmental controls and social pressure, incorporating green chemistry into the synthesis of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and intermediates with “get it right the first time” approach, has been steadily gaining priority in the pharmaceutical industry and has evolved into an institutionalized practice among major pharmaceutical companies [6-9] and now it needs to be accelerated.

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