Greener Production Methods Emerge for Weight-Loss Drugs
Pharmaceutical manufacturers are shifting to greener production methods for GLP-1 peptide weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy, reducing reagent waste and moving away from restricted solvents. The traditional process uses up to 13,000 kg of reagents per kg of peptide. Expert Fernando Albericio also calls for ethical use of these medications, often dubbed 'Hollywood drugs.'
The GLP-1 peptide agonists behind blockbuster weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have traditionally been produced by highly wasteful methods of chemical synthesis, but this is now changing. Companies are moving away from harmful solvents, such as dimethylformamide, which has been restricted in Europe, toward greener alternatives.
According to Fernando Albericio, PhD, a professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, it is important to be more efficient, and use less and greener reagents and solvents. Albericio will be speaking about sustainability in GLP-1 peptide agonist production at the Bioprocessing Summit Europe in Barcelona next month.
Many peptide products are currently synthesized through wasteful chemical processes. Generating a single kilo of peptide, for example, can require 13,000 kilos of reagent to manufacture. This is because solid-phase peptide synthesis requires 82 different reactions, each involving a reagent and a wash step.
To get around this, companies are investigating greener solutions, including using alternative solvents, such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DSMO) or production techniques adopted from the cosmetics industry, where being green is part of their marketing.
These new drugs are really creating a driving force for new high-quality research, and there are several strategies under investigation for the next generation of peptides.
Albericio is also urging society to be greener by considering who needs to take these new weight-loss drugs. They are often called Hollywood drugs because people in Hollywood are taking them. If you have diabetes or obesity, it might be ethical to take them, but if you have a healthy diet and take regular exercise, maybe you don’t.