Impactive Project: $7.7 million for a cleaner and more competitive pharmaceutical industry

[Press Release] - Published on February 24, 2023 in Press Room

Is it possible to produce medicines in a more environmentally friendly and cost-effective way without outsourcing production to the other side of the world? It will soon be possible thanks to mechanochemistry, a breakthrough technology at the heart of the IMPACTIVE project led by the University of Montpellier and coordinated by chemist Evelina Colacino of the Charles Gerhardt Institute. The project has received €7.7 million in funding under the Horizon Europe program.

The pharmaceutical industry is one of the most polluting sectors on the planet, with a carbon footprint larger than that of the automotive industry. To reduce this environmental impact, Evelina Colacino, a chemist at the Charles Gerhardt Institute, proposes mechanochemistry—a technology that eliminates the need for the solvents used in traditional chemistry to synthesize molecules of pharmaceutical interest, which are the active ingredients in our medications.

Eliminating the use of polluting solvents

Most of our medications are made from synthesized molecules. To produce them, manufacturers induce interactions between different molecules using solvents that facilitate these interactions; however, these solvents account for 80% of the waste generated during the production of these molecules. Mechanochemistry proposes to make molecules interact not through solvents but by applying mechanical forces, using ball mills, reactive extrusion, or acoustic activation. While this technology is already used in other industrial sectors, the IMPACTIVE project (innovative mechanochemical processes to synthesize green active pharmaceutical ingredients) is the first to apply it to the pharmaceutical industry.

Led by the University of Montpellier, this project—which brings together 17 partners, including universities, research laboratories, and the companies Merck and Novartis—is coordinated by chemist Evelina Colacino of the Charles Gerhardt Institute in Montpellier.  Convinced of its relevance, the European Union has awarded €7.7 million in funding to the researcher and her consortium to develop this technology, which holds promise in many fields. 

Relocate production

This is because mechanochemistry not only holds the promise of a cleaner pharmaceutical industry through reduced solvent use, but also a more competitive one, as it is far less energy-intensive. Savings that could amount to as much as 12% of production costs. This innovative technology could also help bring back some of the production currently concentrated in Asia. “One of the major goals of this project is to make Europe more independent in the face of certain geopolitical challenges, for example,” emphasizes Evelina Colacino.

Keywords: Innovation, Research, Science, Company