AMR Awareness Week: Way forward for pharma companies to ensure antibiotics manufacturing doesn’t drive resistance

Antibiotics are a cornerstone of modern medicine, enabling humans to fight off a huge variety of dangerous infections, and it is critical that companies produce antibiotics in quantities enough to meet the world's needs.

Unfortunately, the process of manufacturing these lifesaving medicines can actually contribute to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is a multifaceted and growing challenge that threatens the efficacy of antibiotics in the face of rising drug resistance.

The overuse and misuse of antibiotics are well-known drivers of AMR, as is lack of access to appropriate antibiotics. However, the risk of AMR posed by the release of antibiotic waste into the environment is often overlooked.

Put simply, if waste generated from antibiotic manufacturing contains high levels of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) when discharged into rivers and waterways, it poses a serious risk to the emergence and spread of AMR and can cause environmental harm. But by manufacturing responsibly, pharmaceutical companies can prevent this risk. 

Moreover, pharmaceutical companies are some of the largest players across antibiotic manufacturing supply chains, and the steps they take to prioritise responsible manufacturing practices can have a transformative impact across these supply chains.

Read the full op-ed on the Down to Earth website.