Pharmaceuticals and the environment scoping meeting

Background:

Since its establishment in 1978, ECETOC's membership has included pharmaceutical companies, chemical companies with significant consumer and personal care portfolios and food companies as well as chemicals, petrochemicals and agrochemicals. However, it came to its attention recently that there were options for sector specific activities, such as for example, in the pharmaceutical sector that were not yet fully explored.

Accordingly, a meeting was organised in Brussels to discuss ways in which ECETOC could address the underlying science issues relevant to human and environmental risk assessment of pharmaceuticals. 15 different companies (23 attendees in all) were invited to participate.

Discussion topics

During the discussions, seven priority topics were highlighted, of which three were prioritised and specific activities have now been initiated. They are:

• ERA of ionisable compounds: a task force was established in summer 2009.
• Read across/MoA/QSAR: A pharma-specific task force is in preparation (Autumn 2010).