A REVIEW OF THE SUSTAINABILITY – CIRCULAR ECONOMY IN THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY

Abstract

Climate change, the number of the global population, and the diversity of activities with an impact on the planet have been on an upward slope, which requires taking preventive measures and changing from a social, economic, and environmental perspective, thus meaning that the adoption of a sustainable lifestyle is necessary. This study provides a review of the literature on the adoption of the circular economy and sustainability concepts in the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector. This study aims to qualitatively assess the need to implement sustainability in the pharmaceutical industry, given that the latter has a significant environmental impact on human existence. In this study, the “Web of Science," "Scopus,” databases, and “Springer Publishing” are used, from which works are extracted based on the keywords sustainability in the pharmaceutical industry and circular economy in the pharmaceutical industry, following the evolution of works written in the last ten years on this topic. The most relevant approaches of the authors to this topic are presented. It can be seen that this topic is one discussed by an important category of researchers, especially in countries where the need for medicines is greater due to the standard of living, such as those in Asia, for example. The research can also be extended to other databases using the same keywords or words related to sustainability or circular economy in the pharmaceutical industry.

Keywords

• sustainability
• environment
• evolution
• economic
• social