The emerging environmental burden from pharmaceuticals

Geetha Mathew, M. K. Unnikrishnan

Research output: Contribution to journalReview ArticleResearchpeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The enormity of pollution due to pharmaceuticals in India has caught the attention of researchers all over the world. This was due to the near extinction of vultures in the Indian subcontinent in the 1990s caused by diclofenac and a recent study in 20 67 by Swedish scientists on pharmaceutical effluents in Patancheru in Hyderabad. The massive outsourcing of pharmaceutical production by the west has made third world nations like India a victim of unbridled opportunism. As the west wakes up to the environmental implications of "pharma pollution", Sweden's Medical Products Agency recommends a reduction in outsourcing and revisions in pharma manufacturing practices. Would these exhortations reduce pharmaceutical pollution in India or would they adversely impact India's advantages in the global drug market?

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)31-34
Number of pages4
JournalEconomic and Political Weekly
Volume47
Issue number18
Publication statusPublished - 5 May 2012
Externally publishedYes

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