Minimising consumption and environmental impacts

Our R&D and manufacturing activities are largely based on chemical synthesis, meaning we use considerable amounts of organic solvents and energy, generating waste and air emissions. We manage these environmental impacts through our integrated Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) approach. We define our overall priorities annually in our HSE Strategy and transform them into measurable targets and actions.

We have applied green chemistry principles broadly for many years in Lundbeck, yielding several circular savings in our Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) production, improving both yield and quality, and decreasing the use of reagents, catalysts, and solvents.

We deploy the best available technologies when designing processes, technical utilities and facilities, to continuously improve our manufacturing processes. Where possible we use solvents with lower environmental impact and have increased our capabilities to recycle organic solvents in chemical production. This has allowed us to eliminate the need for thousands of tons of virgin materials and continue to save resources for production, transportation and waste management.

We partner with universities to develop new working methods. For instance, by introducing continuous processing. Here the product is produced in a continuous flow in significantly smaller equipment than used in traditional batch processes where large reactors are filled, emptied and cleaned between each process step. This offers great benefits in raw material and energy usage.

By combining continuous production with recycling principles, we can create a circular economy, integrating different manufacturing processes and reusing materials across different processes. A number of results have demonstrated that circularity can deliver on both resource recycling and on reducing climate emissions. Thus, our Sustainability Strategy contains a circular economy aspiration to move away from the traditional linear ‘take-make-dispose’ manufacturing model to a more regenerative model. This is in line with the SDG 12 'Responsible Consumption and Production'.

There is an interest within the pharmaceutical industry to increase what can be recycled and reused in packaging materials. This is being pursued at the association level in close dialogue with relevant health authorities.

Access to clean water resources is a growing global challenge. Only a negligible part of Lundbeck’s global operations, including suppliers, occurs in classified high-risk areas in relation to the water resource. Additionally, Lundbeck maintains limited water withdrawal for production and research activities within its operations. We do not operate in areas of high-water risk, and only 5% of our total water withdrawal occurs in regions classified by the WWF as high-water stress. 

Lundbeck address related risks primarily through our commitment to responsible water usage and wastewater management. We are dedicated to reducing our environmental impact by quantifying water withdrawal, minimising water consumption, and proactively managing wastewater emissions across all research and production facilities. This commitment includes setting reduction targets at local sites, supported by dedicated optimisation initiatives aimed at lowering our overall impact. 

We acknowledge stakeholder concerns about pharmaceutical residues in the environment. These mainly come from patients’ excretion of medicines taken to treat or prevent a disease. We test the environmental effects of new medicinal products and design processes with the least possible environmental impact.

We pursue approaches that balance healthcare needs and environmental considerations in line with EFPIA’s Eco-Pharmaco-Stewardship Initiative to minimise pharmaceuticals in the environment and UN Sustainability Development Goal 12 on responsible consumption and production. Read more about the EFPIA Eco-Pharmaco-Stweardship Initiative. 

Lundbeck does not operate in areas of high biodiversity value and has not identified any substantial negative impact on ecosystem services in our supply chain. Lundbeck recognises our responsibility to continue monitoring and managing biodiversity We seek to reduce our environmental impact by performing risk assessments, optimise processes and use the least harmful substances in our production. We also acknowledge that pharmaceuticals in the environment, originating from our sold products, can have a negative impact on biodiversity and ecosystems.