With the rise in the global average temperature and the effects this has and will increasingly bring on the earth’s climate with serious consequences for society and the economy, the European Union and in particular the European Commission has approved The Green Deal. A package of measures aimed at transforming the European economy in a way that immediately addresses challenges related to climate change, environmental protection and long-term sustainability by identifying priorities and actions. As part of this ambitious process, industry plays a crucial role, accounting for more than 20 percent of the EU economy, and industry is also responsible for emitting 20 percent of all pollutants to air and water and 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU. So to reach the ultimate goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050 (as written in the Green Deal), changes are needed in all industries, including pharmaceuticals, which must review its production processes to ensure sustainability, preserve the environment, and maintain strong global competitiveness.
Improvements will need to be made in various segments of the new drug development process, with a focus on the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), targeting innovation to achieve environmentally sustainable and climate-neutral processes. In the context of API synthesis, green chemistry has gained more and more ground in recent decades. This approach considers environmental and health factors, with a focus on process sustainability. The move toward greener industrial processes has involved an analysis of the impact of solvents, which make up most of the total mass of a process. The increased use of synthetic procedures based on flow chemistry is a significant step toward greater environmental and energy sustainability in API preparation. Further improvement in the sustainability of production processes could come from mechanochemistry, which involves synthetic procedures conducted without the use or minimal amount of solvent. The latter two techniques are critical to the development and growth of an increasingly sustainable pharmaceutical industry.
Indeed, flow chemistry represents a widely explored technology whose inherent features not only facilitate but also offer reproducible access to a wide range of otherwise inefficient or problematic chemical processes. At its core, a flow chemistry module constitutes a stable set of conditions, traditionally conceived of as an externally applied means of activation or control (e.g., heat or light), through which reactants flow. In an attempt to simplify the teaching approach and popularization of this discipline, we envisioned that the main advantages of this technique, such as reproducibility and correlation between reaction time and position in the reactor, would allow a redefinition of the flow module in more synthetically relevant terms, based on the overall induced effect.
On the other hand, mechanochemistry encompasses the physicochemical transformations promoted by mechanical energy, resulting from phenomena such as compression, shear, impact, extension, and others. Experimentally, these mechanical inputs can be applied to a chemical system through mechanochemical techniques such as manual grinding, mechanical milling, twin-screw extraction, pulsed ultrasonication, and single-molecule force spectroscopy techniques, among others.
It is important to note that although mechanochemical reactions have been known since ancient times and the number of recent studies in the field is steadily growing, mechanochemistry is still considered to be in its early stages when compared with its potential for advancement in chemical synthesis. This potential has been discussed and highlighted in reviews that focus on specific aspects of mechanochemical processes, including, for example, the ability of mechanochemistry to modify established chemical reactivity.
In conclusion, the EU Green Deal is an urgent response to climate change, committing to transform the European economy to address environmental challenges and ensure long-term sustainability. Industry, central to the EU economy, is called upon to play a crucial role in the transformation process. In pharmaceuticals, significant changes are needed to achieve climate neutrality goals by 2050, with a focus on innovative approaches such as green chemistry and flow chemistry technology. In parallel, mechanochemistry offers promising prospects for improving process sustainability. In summary, sustainable innovation in industrial processes is essential to successfully realize the goals of the Green Deal and ensure an environmentally sustainable future for the pharmaceutical industry and the entire European economy.
BIBLIOGRAFIA
K.J. Ardila-Fierro and J.G. Hernández, “Sustainability Assessment of Mechanochemistry by Using the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry”, ChemSusChem 2021, 14, 2145–216
https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/ priorities-2019-2024/european-green-deal_en
Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe, 2020,
https://ec.europa.eu/health/system/ files/2021-02/pharma-strategy_report_en_0.pdf
Guidi, P. H. Seebergerab and K. Gilmore, “How to approach flow chemistry”, Chem. Soc. Rev., ,49, 8910, 2020
Bandiera, “Sostenibilità nell’industria Farmaceutica”, LA CHIMICA E L’INDUSTRIA online, anno vi, 2, 2022
Una nuova strategia industriale per l’Europa. Comunicazione della Commissione al Parlamento Europeo, al Consiglio Europeo, al Consiglio, al Comitato Economico e Sociale Europeo e al Comitato Delle Regioni. COM/2020/102 final, Bruxelles 10.3.2020.