Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.
Advertisement
Nature Sustainability (2024)
155
Metrics details
The pervasive contamination of ecosystems with active pharmaceutical ingredients poses a serious threat to biodiversity, ecosystem services and public health. Urgent action is needed to design greener drugs that maintain efficacy but also minimize environmental impact.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles
$119.00 per year
only $9.92 per issue
Buy this article
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Wilkinson, J. L. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 119, e2113947119 (2022).
Article CAS Google Scholar
Bouzas-Monroy, A., Wilkinson, J. L., Melling, M. & Boxall, A. B. A. Environ. Toxicol. Chem. 41, 2008–2020 (2022).
Article CAS Google Scholar
Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Directive 2000/60/EC establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy, Directive 2006/118/EC on the protection of groundwater against pollution and deterioration and Directive 2008/105/EC on environmental quality standards in the field of water policy (European Commission, 2022).
Persson, L. et al. Environ. Sci. Technol. 56, 1510–1521 (2022).
Article CAS Google Scholar
Kidd, K. A. et al. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 104, 8897–8901 (2007).
Article CAS Google Scholar
Saaristo, M. et al. Proc. R. Soc. B 285, 20181297 (2018).
Article Google Scholar
Mehdi, H. et al. Sci. Total Environ. 759, 143430 (2021).
Article CAS Google Scholar
Communication from the Commission. European Union Strategic Approach to Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (European Commission, 2019).
Improving prescribing and medicines use: sustainable prescribing. Royal Pharmaceutical Society (2021); https://go.nature.com/3V4dk8j
Jones, E. R., Van Vliet, M. T. H., Qadir, M. & Bierkens, M. F. P. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 13, 237–254 (2021).
Article Google Scholar
Bourgin, M. et al. Water Res. 129, 486–498 (2018).
Article CAS Google Scholar
Somasundar, Y. et al. ACS EST Water 1, 2155–2163 (2021).
Article CAS Google Scholar
Kümmerer, K. Green Chem. 9, 899–907 (2007).
Article Google Scholar
Leder, C. et al. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 9, 9358–9368 (2021).
Article CAS Google Scholar
Puhlmann, N., Mols, R., Olsson, O., Slootweg, J. C. & Kümmerer, K. Green Chem. 23, 5006–5023 (2021).
Article CAS Google Scholar
Download references
We acknowledge funding support from the Swedish Research Council Formas (2018-00828 to T.B., 2020-02293 to M.G.B., 2020-00981 to E.S.M., 2020-01052 to D.C., 2022-00503 to M.M. and 2022-02796/2023-01253 to J.M.M.), the Kempe Foundations (SMK-1954, SMK21-0069 and JCSMK23-0078 to M.G.B.), the Swedish Research Council VR (2022-03368 to E.S.M.), the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement (101061889 to M.M.), Research England (131911 to M.J.), the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (PID2022-139746OB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 to G.O.), the Australian Research Council (FT190100014 and DP220100245 to B.B.M.W.), the Jarislowsky Foundation (to K.A.K.), a Royal Society of New Zealand Catalyst Leaders Fellowship (ILF-CAW2201 to B.W.B.) and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (1P01ES028942 to B.W.B.). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
These authors contributed equally: Tomas Brodin, Michael G. Bertram.
These authors jointly supervised this work: Klaus Kümmerer, Gorka Orive.
Department of Wildlife, Fish, and Environmental Studies, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umeå, Sweden
Tomas Brodin, Michael G. Bertram, Daniel Cerveny, Jake M. Martin, Erin S. McCallum & Marcus Michelangeli
Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Michael G. Bertram & Jake M. Martin
School of Biological Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Michael G. Bertram, Marcus Michelangeli & Bob B. M. Wong
Department of Environment and Geography, University of York, York, UK
Kathryn E. Arnold & Alistair B. A. Boxall
Department of Environmental Science, Baylor University, Waco, TX, USA
Bryan W. Brooks
Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Vodňany, Czech Republic
Daniel Cerveny
Medicinal Chemistry Theme, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
Manuela Jörg
Centre for Cancer, Chemistry – School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK
Manuela Jörg
Department of Biology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Karen A. Kidd
Bioaraba Health Research Institute, Osakidetza Basque Health Service, Araba Mental Health Network, Araba Psychiatric Hospital, Pharmacy Service, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Unax Lertxundi
Drug Discovery Biology, Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Monash University, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
Lauren T. May
School of Environment and Science, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia
Marcus Michelangeli
Biosciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
Charles R. Tyler
Institute of Sustainable Chemistry, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Lüneburg, Germany
Klaus Kümmerer
International Sustainable Chemistry Collaborative Centre (ISC3), Bonn, Germany
Klaus Kümmerer
Laboratory of Pharmaceutics, School of Pharmacy, University of the Basque Country, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Gorka Orive
Biomedical Research Networking Centre in Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Gorka Orive
Bioaraba, NanoBioCel Research Group, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain
Gorka Orive
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Correspondence to Tomas Brodin, Michael G. Bertram or Gorka Orive.
The authors declare no competing interests.
Nature Sustainability thanks Lydia Niemi, Terrence Collins and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Reprints and permissions
Brodin, T., Bertram, M.G., Arnold, K.E. et al. The urgent need for designing greener drugs. Nat Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01374-y
Download citation
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-024-01374-y
Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:
Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.
Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative
Advertisement
© 2024 Springer Nature Limited
Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Translational Research newsletter — top stories in biotechnology, drug discovery and pharma.