This event runs from 9am-11am CET, a recording will be available afterward.
This second Deep Dive is organized by the Swedish Knowledge Centre on pharmaceuticals in the environment | Swedish Medical Products Agency | Läkemedelsverket, on behalf of RAGNA.
The Deep Dive will take a closer look at manufacturing of antibiotics, emission and waste management. Pharmaceutical manufacturing is considered to be one of the sources for development of antimicrobial resistance. In the WHO guideline on waste and wastewater management, with focus on manufacturing of antibiotics, this is expressed in a comprehensive way.
While the overall largest volume of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) that reach the environment most likely originates from usage, the highest environmental concentrations found are the result of pollution from manufacturing (Larsson 2014).
Pollution with antimicrobials provides a case of special concern. In addition to direct ecological effects (Brandt et al. 2015), environmental pollution with antimicrobials may also contribute to the development of resistance, in both non-pathogenic and pathogenic microbes, thereby threatening the use of antimicrobials as effective therapeutic agents in humans, domestic animals and crops (Larsson et al. 2023; United Nations Environment Programme 2023; Larsson and Flach 2022). Such effects are not restricted to the site of the emissions, as microorganisms could propagate and eventually spread world-wide.
Hopefully this Deep Dive will give us an opportunity to increase knowledge and highlight some of the challenges and opportunities linked to manufacturing of antibiotics.