Pioneering DfMA:.
If we could remove this demand for drugs along with severely reducing the waste of wrongly sold, wrongly prescribed, never-taken and out-of-shelf-life waste, this would have a significant impact on the environmental footprint of the industry.. One of the points raised was the lack of general knowledge about the impact manufacturing and delivery of medicine has on the environment.Greater public awareness may help to reduce some of this wastage through a reduction in demand..
Looking forward, there is a growing dilemma that new modalities may increase the diversity of solvents – acetonitrile, for example, may be of particular concern.The good news is that there is already some strategic collaboration happening in these areas.. As many new medicines are developed by start-ups, if we can ensure good guidance and information then we can get things right from the start.There are already collaborative groupings of start-ups, and linking these with the information flow on alternatives and economics could be highly beneficial..
The group agreed that framing the driver for change around waste reduction and sustainable economics, together with greater public and business awareness and, would help to push the agenda in the right direction.. Regulators and regulations can be enablers for change, rather than inertial.The more consistent and proactive enablers, the better; they could create an environment where positive change can happen quickly within a clear, consistent economic playing field.. New technologies, including AI models to help predict the presence of harmful impurities alongside developments in impurity detection at parts per trillion levels, could be extremely useful.
In conjunction with testing/development facilities, these technologies could accelerate problem finding and solving..
Fear, and the inertia of uncertainty, is lessened by shining a light on the technological and economic opportunities.Installing advanced heat sources, such as small modular reactors (SMRs), to replace the coal-fired boilers at existing coal plants will enable the continued use of existing infrastructure for emissions-free electricity generation.. Repurposing coal offers a fast, low-risk, large-scale contribution to decarbonising the world’s power generation as we move into the future..
Together with Terra Praxis, other specialists and key stakeholders, we are developing a solution that will contribute to creating a huge market for rapid, low-cost repurposing of coal and gas plants with carbon-free advanced heat sources, while delivering a substantial portion of the clean electricity required to help achieve Net Zero by 2050..Traditional Approaches won’t work – a platform (P-DfMA) approach will.
If we use traditional approaches to design, procure and build nuclear plants at the scale we need to get the required level of carbon emission reductions, we simply will fail:.It would be too costly to be attractive to utilities companies and plant owners.