ABSTRACT
The steady growth of the pharmaceutical industry in the past half
century, coupled with the more recent and rapid growth in the
generic business, has been of great benefit to human health. Today
there are 4,500 drugs in development, including experimental ones,
which comprise about 70% of the total. Nearly 44% of Americans
are taking at least one prescription drug.1,2 The annual value of US
sales was estimated at $330 billion for 2010, showing an annual
growth rate over many decades of nearly 8.5%. From 1950 to 2010,
the total resident population of the U.S. increased from 151 million
to 305 million people, representing an average annual growth rate
of 1.2%.3-5 This expansion in population and the accompanying
growth of pharmaceutical production to meet customers’ needs
came with a significant environmental cost. Unfortunately several
industries are relying on outdated methods to produce active phar-
maceutical ingredients (APIs), making it the most wasteful chemical
producer as measured by the E-factor, a relation of waste produced
versus desired material obtained.6-9 Yet times are changing, as the
examples in this chapter demonstrate. In their drive to harness
waste, many pharmaceutical producers have adopted the 12 green
chemistry principles and redesigned their chemical processes to
important medicines. Eyeballing innovative ways to reformulate
their currentmanufacturing process has led them to trim down their
impact on the environment. The present chapter confers about the
evolution in production from initial strategy to greener approaches
for several significant pharmaceutical APIs (Fig. 2.1).
