Pharmaceutical industry sustainable innovation

In Part IV, we turn to the issue of patents and pharmaceuticals. Adam Mannan and Alan Story argue that drug access could be improved if product patents were abolished. They argue that even if a process patent is present, competitors can find alternative processes or uses for the chemical compound and create price competition. To further support their argument, the authors explain how the patent system was created not because it had to create conditions for sustainable innovation, but for market protection. They note that, until recently, few countries even recognized pharmaceutical product patents and some countries, such as India, were able to develop a thriving industry as a result of the absence of product patents. 

The U.S. Department of Labor foresees plentiful jobs for chemists in the pharmaceutical industry. It attributes the need for chemists partly to sustained competition among firms striving to bring innovative drugs to an aging population. Organic chemists, among others, will enjoy the best job prospects. 

In July 2011, the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) published a call entitled Sustainable Chemistry—Delivering Medicines For The 21st Century . IMI is a partnership between the European Union (represented by the European Commission) and the European pharmaceutical industry (represented by EFPIA, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations), including the big pharma global corporations as well as small... 

Industrial concentration in corn and the other seed industries is likely to be exacerbated by unfolding biotechnical advances. The pharmaceutical and chemical companies possessing the biochemistry research base have acquired the seed companies to deliver the ultimate product of their Innovations the seed. The programming of the genetic code in new varieties will proceed on the basis of profitability, but it is not clear how concerns over environmental sustainability, genetic vulnerability, and distributive justice will factor into these equations. 

Fisheries scientists continue to explore aquatic and marine bioresources for pharmaceuticals, nutra-ceuticals, and novel biomaterials as well as investigate distribution and biodiversity of marine organisms important to industrial utilization. In finding innovative uses for aquatic and marine products and thereby increasing the value of specific fish stocks, fisheries scientists also make more likely the prospect that a given stock will be more sustainably harvested over the long term. 

Society is becoming progressively more worried with safety issues while wishing for a sustainable future. Sustainable chemistry represents an area of innovation, which not only preserves resources but also stands for a development process in the chemical industry. The most important goals in fine chemicals, skin care products and pharmaceuticals including biomedical compositions are the development of nontoxic and biodegradable compounds, the advance on new reaction conditions (cleaner solvents, biotechnological processes, etc.) and the use of raw materials from renewable feedstock [1]. 

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