Injecting Sustainability: Maximizing Complex Formulations to Minimize Carbon Footprints
Find out how lyophilization, long-acting injectables, and sequential delivery can substantially reduce waste and environmental impact.
With the increasing global demand for injectable drugs, the negative environmental impact of autoinjectors is becoming a pressing concern. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 16 billion injections are administered worldwide every year, with a significant portion involving autoinjectors. Many of these expended and expired devices end up in landfills or improperly incinerated.
Addressing this issue requires innovative solutions that go beyond traditional practices, focusing on reducing waste at the source. Complex formulations and co-formulations provide an opportunity to alleviate this significant environmental burden.
Here’s how.
Reducing the number of autoinjectors necessary to deliver a complex drug therapy.
For instance, with long-acting injectables (LAIs), transitioning from a weekly injection to a quarterly injection can reduce the number of autoinjectors annually from 52 to just 4. This cuts the carbon footprint by approximately 92% while also improving patient adherence and convenience.
Windgap’s novel LVDC autoinjector platform is designed to address the mixing and delivery challenges of longer-acting injectables, resulting in a range of patient benefits and a smaller carbon footprint.
Reducing carbon footprint associated with combination therapies.
Combination therapies, especially in oncology, often require multiple injections due to co-formulation challenges.
Windgap’s LVDC platform again rises to the challenge, allowing for the sequential delivery of two separate molecules (up to 3 mL each) with a single injection. This eliminates the need for excess packaging and needles, thus cutting waste by 50%.
Extending shelf-life and reducing cold chain requirements.
Many drug products require cold chain infrastructure to keep them refrigerated or, in some cases, completely frozen. Intentionally commercializing lyophilized products can reduce the need for refrigeration and thus reduce the energy burden on a supply chain.
Windgap’s LVDC platform provides a simple, easy-to-use autoinjector that can automatically rehydrate and administer a lyophilized drug in 2 simple user steps. This enhances shelf-life and temperature resilience for the drug, improving the environmental impacts of the supply chain and keeping more autoinjectors out of landfills.
These benefits meet rising consumer demands for fewer injections and refills while offering the potential to meet sustainability targets head-on. The more we embrace complex therapies, the more opportunities we have to increase the impact of sustainability measures.
Complex formulations are the simplest way forward.
Partnering with Windgap Medical means embracing advanced solutions that significantly cut waste and carbon footprints. By inspiring the pharmaceutical industry to take a more “complex” approach and think beyond the traditional methods that have helped create the problem, we can reduce the number of total autoinjectors needed, minimize packaging, enhance drug stability, and so much more.
Our LVDC autoinjector platform tackles the challenges of long-acting injectables, combination therapies, and cold chain requirements, providing a sustainable and efficient alternative.
Just another way Windgap Medical is helping to create a more environmentally friendly future for drug delivery.
This post is part of a 5-part series about “Injecting Sustainability” into complex drug delivery. Find the full series here.
This post is part of a 5-part series about “Injecting Sustainability” into complex drug delivery. Find the full series here.