The pharmaceuticals industry is a subset of the organic chemicals industry, and many of the cleaner production practices in chemical manufacturing apply to pharmaceuticals production. The laboratory operations of pharmaceutical companies are similar to those in medical research organizations and hospitals. The industry is characterized by large plants with highly advanced technology. Major cleaner production improvements usually come from redesigning processes or from recycling of major waste streams such as solvents.
Case studies are the best sources of information for such solutions.
But low-cost options such as improved housekeeping, dry cleaning, and solvent substitution maintenance can also offer significant savings and reduce waste. Researchers should study the principle guides to pollution prevention listed below to understand the diversity of processes and potential solutions, and review the case studies for similar processes. Cleaner production and pollution guides for the chemical industries and for hospitals and medical research organizations should also be reviewed. A number of the leading pharmaceutical companies have put their Environment Health and Safety reports on their websites, and these provide many good ideas. It is often difficult to obtain good quality process-specific information in this sector because process details are a major competitive secrecy issue.