Browsing by Author "Lehtinen, Petra"

Medicines are essential to human and animal well-being. They do, however, cause harmful effects to the environment, humans, and animals – especially to aquatic organisms. The most significant route for pharmaceutical residues to end up in the environment is the conventional use of medicines in people. Due to ageing of the population and medicalization, the amount of medicines used to treat humans will only increase in the future. Pharmaceutical residues may also end up in the environment from production sites of pharmaceutical manufacturers, which causes harmful environmental effects locally. Also, the transport of raw materials and finished pharmaceutical preparations produces climate emissions. There is still work to be done to improve sustainability of the pharmaceutical sector. Incorporating environmental criteria in public procurement of medicines is seen as a method of advancing responsibility within the sector. In the spring of 2023, the HUS Pharmacy tender invitations included, for the first time, environmental criteria. Yet at this point, the criteria did not have a decisive role in decision-making. The aims of this study included discovering how the representatives of those pharmaceutical companies participating in the HUS tender invitations experienced the HUS environmental criteria, how they viewed the environmental criteria in public procurement of medicines in general, and which actions or incentives they considered the most effective tools in guiding pharmaceutical production towards a more sustainable direction. The study was conducted as an internet survey and video interviews. The environmental criteria of HUS were perceived as quite clear but there had been difficulties in seeking for the information needed. This was due to the limited time available and the internationality of the organizations, among other things. The respondents hoped for the adoption of uniform criteria, which would easen responding to different tender invitations and reduce the time needed for fact-finding. This kind of criteria was hoped to be prepared for in collaboration with different stakeholders, also considering internationality. Keeping environmental criteria involved in tender invitations was seen as one possible means of advancing sustainability of pharmaceutical manufacturing. Clear and agreeing views were not achieved for all questions presented, but instead the responses divided quite a lot for some questions. This is probably partly connected to the complexicity of the subject and the fact that some of the questions presented were seen as somewhat ambiguous. Altogether, it may be stated that the general atmosphere was more positive than negative towards the environmental effects being taken into account. Utilizing environmental criteria in promoting environmental responsibility of the pharmaceutical sector will be of use. But when formulating the criteria, it should be remembered that too strict criteria may result in a decline in the amount of offers to tender invitations.