PREMIER partners publish new scientific paper: A database on pharmaceuticals in the environment: What do stakeholders need?

There is increasing concern about the potential impact of pharmaceutical pollution on aquatic ecosystems. Although data to assess the environmental risk of pharmaceuticals exist, they are dispersed and often not publicly accessible. To address this, the European Commission recently proposed developing a data source for human medicinal products, consulting relevant stakeholders, including healthcare and industry representatives. In line with this proposal, the aim of our study was to define the user requirements for such a database on pharmaceuticals in the environment (PiE). We reached out to over 100 professionals that work on PiE, asking what data should be included and what features the database should offer.

Results show that most stakeholders are affected by data gaps, especially regarding ecotoxicity, monitoring, transformation products, metabolites, and removal rates in wastewater treatment plants. Interest in the mechanism of action of active pharmaceutical ingredients was mainly expressed by the pharma sector (i.e., stakeholders involved in the authorisation, production, and use of medicines).

Researchers and stakeholders dealing with environmental and water quality have greater interest for mass spectrum data, modelled environmental concentrations and data on transformation products and metabolites. While highlighting that the key actors working on PiE strongly endorse the development of an accessible and transparent database, this study provides recommendations for creating such a data repository on pharmaceuticals.

See the article here.