Abstract:

The life cycle assessment (LCA) method is widely used for the systematic identification and assessment of environmental issues among different products and processes, especially for identifying pollutant emissions and minimizing the environmental impacts of products and processes. Pharmaceutical chemicals and intermediates are usually more complex, which result in greater environmental impacts than basic bulk chemicals. Therefore, LCA can systematically quantify and analyze the potential environmental impacts of the entire life cycle of products in the pharmaceutical field to support the “dual-carbon” goal of China. This paper briefly describes the four steps of the LCA method, including goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment, and life cycle interpretation. On this basis, the current status and research progress of the application of LCA in the pharmaceutical field are specified from the aspects of drug production, medical devices, and medical services. Additionally, the crucial existing problems in the pharmaceutical LCA studies are identified, such as relatively rare studies, difficult in the data collection, especially for drug intermediates which usually have complex structures, lack of the life cycle upstream data, the low accuracy of the data, and inconsistency in the LCA method. Finally, relevant suggestions are proposed to support the sustainable development of the pharmaceutical field from the life cycle perspective.

Key words: pharmaceutical field, life cycle assessment (LCA), global warming potential (GWP), pharmaceutical production, medical devices

摘要：

生命周期评价（life cycle assessment，LCA）方法可以系统识别和评估不同产品与工艺之间的环境问题，确定污染物排放量并最大限度地减少产品和工艺过程中的环境影响。相比于基础大宗化工产品，医药化学品及中间体通常比较复杂，所带来的环境影响更大，通过生命周期评价可以量化分析医药领域中产品全生命周期过程造成的潜在环境影响，以支持医药领域“双碳”目标发展。本文简述了生命周期评价方法的四个步骤：目的和范围的确定，生命周期清单分析，生命周期影响评价和生命周期解释。并在此基础上，从药物生产、医疗器械、医疗服务三方面综述了生命周期评价在医药领域的应用现状和研究进展，指出了现有的医药生命周期评价研究所存在的一些问题，如研究相对较少、数据收集困难，尤其是药物中间体结构复杂、生命周期上游清单数据缺失，以及数据质量不高、生命周期影响评价方法不统一等。最后，针对未来医药领域生命周期评价发展提出相关建议。

关键词: 医药领域, 生命周期评价, 温室效应, 药物生产, 医疗器械