Protesters dressed in biohazard suits and costumes picketed the event today claiming there had been a “major superbug outbreak” see video..
Paul Ferris, Campaign Manager for SumOfUs told us "the protest at CPhI today was designed to draw attention to the global pharmaceutical industry's role in fueling the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR).
"AMR is a growing health crisis, which a UK government-backed review found could kill up to 10 million people annually by 2050" he said adding that "leading pharmaceutical companies continue to turn a blind eye to the problem.
"Over 140,000 consumers globally have joined SumOfUs in calling for action and today we took that message to one of the pharmaceutical industry's most important annual events."
Antibiotic resistance
Earlier this year SumOfUs called for GMP assessments to consider the environmental impact of API production and claimed that pollution generated by suppliers in China and India is furthering the spread of resistant superbugs.
The claim was issued in a report that accused several major drugmakers of sourcing drug ingredients from suppliers that pollute.
Study co-author Nusa Urbancic told us at the time that the organisation wants environmental criteria to be included in good manufacturing practices (GMP) guidelines and said industry initiatives like the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI) do not go far enough.
“Companies signing up to these [PSCI] principles, which are entirely voluntary, must - among other things - have systems in place to ensure the safe handling, movement, storage, recycling, reuse, or management of waste, air emissions and wastewater discharges.”
Urbancic added that: “This is a good starting point, but obviously nothing will happen as long as the principles remain voluntary and as long as transparency is not enforced by regulators.”
At present neither EU GMP nor US cGMP consider the environmental impacts of API production. Sweden’s Medicinal Products Agency (MPA) did suggest including some anti-pollution requirements in 2011, however, nothing came of the recommendation.
Note: The original headline for this article was "Environmental protesters calling for for green API production disrupt CPhI."