On October 5th, the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy has published an opinion for the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (as the committee responsible) on a pharmaceutical strategy for Europe.
In the general principles, the water-related elements mentioned are:
1. Urges the Commission to propose the inclusion of environmental standards, especially on waste and wastewater management, in the Good Manufacturing Practice guidelines at international level;
2. Calls on pharmaceutical companies and academic researchers to intensify their efforts on research into discharges of medical waste into the environment; points to the current lack of knowledge about what happens to such waste in water and soil and the impact on human health, in particular as regards AMR; calls on the Commission, when revising pharmaceutical legislation, to tighten up the requirements to be met by pharmaceutical undertakings as regards environmental risk assessment, and to make the study of antimicrobial resistance and research into and the development of new antimicrobials priorities.
