Pfizer issues guide for medicines disposal
pharmafile | September 18, 2012 | News story | Manufacturing and Production | EPA, PRDA, Pfizer
Pfizer has published a guide for the safe disposal of medicines targeted at healthcare professionals and facilities in the US.
The scheme – developed by WM Healthcare Solutions – is claimed to be the first of its kind in the pharma industry and is designed to guide doctors and clinics “through sometimes complex waste disposal requirements”.
The Pfizer Responsible Disposal Advisor (PRDA) is free-of-charge and available online – although currently only to registered customers at Pfizer’s PfizerPro website and is not targeted at consumers.
The publication comes at a time when several US states are introducing legal requirements for firms to be responsible for the disposal of their products.
The new programme details hazardous waste categories for all Pfizer products, including the codes for specific wastes classified as hazardous by the US’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA).
It also has state regulatory information, details what defines which unused pharmaceuticals are defined as hazardous and provides tips on developing a compliant hazardous pharmaceutical waste management programme.
Earlier this year, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was criticised in a report which found that the agency had not used its RCRA authority to determine whether pharmaceuticals may qualify as hazardous waste since 1980.
The report by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) also concluded the EPA had failed to establish a process for the “regular identification and review of pharmaceuticals that may qualify for regulation as hazardous waste”, and identified eight chemicals found in pharmaceuticals that should be classified as ‘acute hazardous waste’ but were not regulated as such.
The review concluded that there may be unknown but potentially dangerous unregulated hazardous waste products from the pharma industry that may be unsafely disposed and released into the environment.
“According to EPA, healthcare employees, retail pharmacy staff, and other pharmaceutical waste generators are often unfamiliar with or confused by RCRA hazardous waste management requirements, sometimes making it difficult to properly dispose of hazardous pharmaceutical waste,” said Mike McInerney, vice president of WM Healthcare Solutions.
“With Pfizer’s support, we can now make this information available to the healthcare community at no charge to encourage proper disposal”, he added.
The EPA is in the process of developing a revised proposal for regulation of hazardous waste pharmaceuticals at healthcare facilities and said recently it anticipates the proposal will be available for public comment in spring 2013.
Phil Taylor
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