industry-smog-factory-environment-pollution-smoke-2043666

Pharma sector is a bigger polluter than the automotive industry

pharmafile | May 28, 2019 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |  CO2, Green, eco-firendly, emissions, pharma, pollution 

The pharmaceutical industry is a bigger polluter than the automotive sector, according to a study from researchers at McMaster University.

In 2015, the pharmaceutical industry produced 48.55 tonnes of CO2 emissions for every million dollars of revenue, meaning the sector as a whole produced 55% more CO2 than the automotive industry.

While the global pharma sector is made up of more than 200 companies, only 25 consistently reported their direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions in the past five years. Of those 25, only 15 firms had records reaching back to 2012.

Advertisement

There were however significant differences between firms. While Eli Lilly, P&G and Abbot were found to be the worst polluters, Roche, J&J and Amgen were found to pollute the least.

Meanwhile Merck, Pfizer, AbbVie, Sanofi, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Amgen, J&J and Roche, had all shown improvement between 2012 and 2015. Others, including Eli Lilly, P&G, Abbot, GSK, Teva, Novartis and AstraZeneca, had all gotten worse.

Notably, the three least polluting companies also had the highest levels of profitability and revenue growth among all firms.

Roche, Johnson & Johnson and Amgen showed revenue increases of 27.2%, 25.7% and 7.8% respectively between 2012 and 2015 while reducing emissions by 18.7%, 8.3% and 8% respectively.

All in all, Eli Lilly was found to generate 5.5 times more carbon emissions than Roche, who polluted the least among the 15 biggest firms.

Nevertheless the findings show that the pharmaceutical industry would have to reduce emissions by 59% by 2025 in order to meet targets set in the Paris agreement.

Louis Goss

Related Content

Pharma sees climate disruption as growing supply-chain risk

Nine in ten pharmaceutical companies across the UK and G7 countries expect climate-related disruption to …

AI in pharma: From lab development to patient impact

In the decade to 2025, AI use in vaccine development has increased markedly but is …

LGC Group opens $100M Organic Chemistry Synthesis Centre of Excellence

LGC Group, a life sciences company, has opened its new Organic Chemistry Synthesis Centre of …

The Gateway to Local Adoption Series

Latest content