At Teva api, we are dedicated to leveraging our corporate resources and expertise to promote healthy communities all over the world. Our ambitious, wide-ranging Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) activities and our commitment to sustainability has just resulted in a 2023 EcoVadis overall score of 62/100 — our highest score ever — reflecting Teva’s ongoing efforts to cultivate responsible business practices and positive social initiatives.
For the full scorecard, download right from our customer portal, Teva api Connect.
This score reflects responsible conduct in environment, labor and human rights practices, ethics and sustainable procurement– and places us in the top 9% of all pharmaceutical companies rated by EcoVadis.
Highlights from the report include:
Our overall score was 62/100
We received an advanced rating of 70/100 for labor, ethics & human rights and ethics.
We received an advanced rating of 70/100 for sustainable procurement.
EcoVadis is the world’s most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings for global supply chains, with its famous scorecards providing invaluable, detailed insight into environmental, social, and ethical factors. Receiving such a high score is not only a huge honor for Teva and Teva api, but also confirmation that we are meeting our ambitious ESG performance goals.
As the leading international supplier of quality active pharmaceutical ingredients, we support 75% of the top 50 global pharmaceutical companies via 14 manufacturing plants, six R&D centers, and seven regional offices. Serving nearly 1,250 customers in more than 75 countries, we are profoundly aware of our deep responsibility to not only comply with all applicable laws and regulations, but also actively work to exert a positive impact on the world around us.
Want a copy of the EcoVadis scorecard? Log in to Connect to download, or, just ask Connie the chatbot for the scorecard.
Sustainability by Design — Implementing Safe Solutions to Reduce Risks
Our recent webinar, Sustainability by Design — Implementing Safe Solutions to Reduce Risks, was all about how the Teva api sustainability team ensures safe solutions are implemented from the earliest stages of API development all the way through to the commercial stage.
Speakers included Franjo Yovich, Principal Pilot Engineer at the PLIVA site in Croatia; Gaash Bar Tal, Director of Sustainable Operations and Green Technologies in Teva’s Global Manufacturing Tech Support Group; and Moshe Turgeman, Associate Director of Process Safety at Teva api.
The webinar covered multiple topics, including:
What sustainability in the labs actually means
How to identify highly-hazardous materials
Why flow chemistry is a hot new technology
How to judge if a product is safe or needs to be ‘let go’
What equipment is needed to discover risky situations
Franjo spoke about the safety aspects of process development. He explained how to know whether our processes are safe or not, and what information we need to provide to our colleagues in production to keep things safe.
He showcased some recent terrible disasters in the news, where factory explosions caused many casualties in Slovenia, Bosnia and Lebanon, and described the equipment Teva api uses to detect unsafe processes.
Gaash explained what process sustainability is, why we need it, and how Teva api embeds it into the product lifecycle. He explained how sustainability is a combination of the economic aspects, environmental aspects and social aspects.
With pharma, which is such a resource-intensive industry, the API part is actually the biggest contributor to the sustainability of the pharmaceutical industry. We are producing 150kg of waste per 1kg of API we are producing, 90% of the total mass of API production is coming from solvents and water, and 80% of the environmental footprint of API production is related to solvent and energy management.
So focusing on process sustainability as part of the product lifecycle management in API production is crucial.
Moshe described how Teva api implements solutions to reduce risks. The answer is three-fold: safer material selection, better wastewater treatment, and safer work processes.
He talked about the standards and guidelines that Teva developed, as well as design principles as part of the engineering process. These were distributed across all Teva sites and employees were fully trained on how to reduce risks.
At the end, the speakers answered 3 questions from listeners.
Do you have a system to evaluate product sustainability?
Gaash talked about the internal tool Teva api developed called the ‘eco-efficiency tool’ to evaluate product sustainability. In the evaluation, they score different aspects of the process, like temperature, yield, volume, solvent selection. Each aspect gets a score and the entire product gets an aggregated score of up to 100. The more sustainable, the higher the score. Once you have the score, you can analyze and act upon it and know exactly where your place your efforts in the lifecycle management.
Is there a system that helps to exclude an unsafe process? Are all processes in Teva api safe?
Franjo answered that emphasis should be put onto the understanding, putting all the knowledge together and deliver it to production. Teva api adopted a system from scientist, Francis Shtesel in the late 2000s in which all processes are put into a criticality class based on temperatures. The ratio of different temperatures will tell us which kind of criticality class we have. Criticality class 1 means a safe process and we can go further and criticality class 5 means unsafe and needs to be reworked. Using this approach, we can determine what is safe and what is not.
Could you provide an example of implementation of inherent safety in design with a passive element?
Moshe said that once we know the criticality of a reaction, we go through designing of an emergency relief system. For this, you need data from the early stages of development, and we also use external world acceptable software. We plug in all the elements of the chemical reactor, including volume, size and quantity, and then design the proper vent sizing in case of emergency. This way, we implement our development data into our engineering.
If you’d like any more information on sustainability, reach out here or watch the full webinar below.
The World of the API: ESG in Pharma – Why it Matters
This article was originally published on 4.7.2022. Since then, Teva has continued its push towards achieving its yearly ESG targets – including donating 30.4 million doses of essential medicines to Ukrainian citizens in need, achieving a 41% increase in total proportion of electricity purchased or generated from renewable sources, and $44B in savings from generic medicines across 21 countries in 2022.
Read more insights from Teva’s 2022 ESG Progress Report here.
ESG in Pharma – Why it Matters
In this podcast episode, we discuss environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in pharma with Teva Pharmaceuticals experts, Itamar Schwartz and Adam Ajzensztejn. We deep-dive into why ESG is such a buzz word at the moment, what impact the pharma industry can actually have, and what makes Teva’s recent $5 billion sustainability-linked bond the first of its kind. Listen now!
Or find us on your favorite podcast app!
Here’s an overview of what we covered in our discussion:
A bit of background
The topic of ESG has catapulted into the limelight recently. Not just in the pharma industry but everywhere.
Investors, employees, customers, consumers and regulators all are demanding firms be more transparent about their plans for tackling environmental, social and governance issues from global warming and pollution to discrimination and forced labor. The risks for companies that are seen as moving too slowly are high.
What exactly is it that makes it such an important topic? And for the pharma industry, and specifically for Teva – what are we doing to make strides in terms of our environmental, social and governance elements? What actions are we taking and what impact will they have when we are successful?
The topic of ESG has evolved over many, many years. What started off with the concept known as corporate responsibility in the 70s has now morphed into what we call ESG.
In the early days, one of the main goals of any company was to bring profit to shareholders, so implementing corporate responsibility factors was very important in order to get the shareholders’ buy in into the company’s vision. So, companies use to make charitable donations and employees had to spend time volunteering.
Now, with ESG we’re talking about value rather than just profit. More than succeeding in giving profit to shareholders, we need to be giving value to stakeholders – when we say stakeholders, we mean investors, suppliers, customers, regulators.
We have to look at it from the scope of risks and opportunities associated with company’s non-financial performance. So it involves everything from data privacy to employee wellbeing, from fair pricing to a sustainable supply chain.
Why ESG is so important
It is important simply because of data. Investors coined this term so companies would set metrics for each component of E, S, and G. it can then be measured, so that the value that companies claim they create can be measured and compared to their industry peers.
It’s the same as financial data. The new consensus among investors is that the non-financial is the new financial. If you want to really evaluate a company you have to look at the non-financial data.
Many studies have already shown that ESG really makes an impact in the long-term. It’s no longer a question about whether it makes an impact. It’s about how you can measure it, and seeing how we can have global unified standards to measure all companies using the same metrics.
Teva’s $5 billion sustainability-linked bond
Teva recently issued a 5 billion dollar sustainability-linked bond. This was the largest ever, the first in the generics industry, and the first in the pharma sector with E and S targets.
It’s a type of bond where the bond itself is tied to sustainability targets. If the company does not achieve the target, they have to pay a penalty to bond holders.
2021 was the year of long-term goal setting for Teva, to make sure they were on track to meet and create sustainable value for the long term. It was clear that some of these goals should be tied to the bond as evidence of an increased level of commitment that the company has to ESG.
The vision was very clear — to make ESG everyone’s business at Teva. A sustainability-linked bond is how they set about to achieve this vision.
The climate crisis – Teva’s goals
The targets they set themselves are ambitious. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2025 and then to further that reduction to 46% by 2030.
These are quite challenging targets – to reduce emissions by almost half in about a decade. To do that, we need to make fundamental changes to the organization.
A structured coordinated set of systems and processes need to be implemented to achieve these targets. To do that, a sustainability task force was set up within Teva, of different disciplines aiming to execute on the strategy of decarbonization. Each person is coming with their own experience and point of view to help decarbonize Teva from within.
The bulk of the Teva footprint is sitting in their value chain — upstream and downstream. It accounts for 90% of total emissions. For example, raw materials used require energy as part of their production and this will emit greenhouse gas emissions.
Likewise, on their other side of their operations, the use of products and throwing them away at the end of life, requires their disposal and that also results in emissions.
Because Teva doesn’t have direct control on the value chain, it’s a tricky thing to try to reduce. But they set a target anyway because they understood how valuable it is. The target is to reduce emissions by 25% by 2030.
A large part of these actions is engagement with the supply chain on ESG topics and specifically climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. They identify those critical suppliers first to work with them and lean on them to reduce their emissions.
It’s like a domino effect with everyone in the chain leaning on the next one down the line.
Access to healthcare – Teva’s goals
Being one of the largest generic manufacturers in the world, Teva really has unique possibility of really impacting access on a global scale. They make access possible, and a lot more affordable.
90% of children with cancer in sub-Saharan Africa do not survive. In the developed world, 80% of children survive. The children in sub-Saharan Africa simply cannot access the medicines that are needed.
Barriers include corrupt governments, governments without resources, operational barriers such as lack of doctors, lack of hospitals and lack of pharmacists.
To tackle these access barriers, Teva has developed a program called Global Hope, in partnership with Direct Relief and Texas Children’s’ hospital, where Teva donates medicines to help these children.
The World Health Organization has an essential medicines list. For cancer treatment, Teva has 73% of treatments on the list. So they can really bring a lot of value in this field.
Teva has committed to two access targets. The first is to increase new regulatory submissions by 150% by 2025, and the second is to increase the product volume, that is either donated or through a social business initiative, by 150% — so more medicines to more patients in need.
Measuring ESG efforts
All of the targets can be measured and Teva has committed to report on progress in their annual ESG progress reports.
In terms of environmental data, hard data is collected from the sites on so many different indicators. It’s then analyzed and the team sees how it transforms over time, and the different trends.
For example, with greenhouse gas emissions, Teva needs to understand their energy consumption and how the emission factors apply to different types of energy in different countries. They look at vehicles and where the emissions from those are coming from.
A big accounting exercise is done, according to international protocols. This is then externally assured as well to make sure Teva is following the rules, and to make sure the data is credible and robust.
This data is taken and scored by external bodies. As of the end of 2021, Teva was in the top 20% in five of the ratings. This includes the EcoVadis rating, which is interesting because it comes from customers rather than investors and assesses ESG performance all around the value chain. Teva managed to improve their score from 56 to 63 in one year and receive the EcoVadis silver medal. In fact, they’re in the top 12% of pharmaceutical companies.
Listen to the podcast here or contact us for more information.
This is the third episode in Teva api’s podcast, “The World of the API,” where we explore the stories of the work we do at Teva api, through conversations with the scientists, leaders and experts who make it happen. The podcast is available on all streaming channels.
Watch Out for these 2022 Trends in the API Industry
Without a doubt, COVID-19 has changed nearly every aspect of our daily lives… from our personal lives to our professional lives. No area remains untouched from the impact of the pandemic. All industries, in particular the pharmaceutical industry, faced an unprecedented set of challenges.
Drug manufacturers and API suppliers were deemed essential industries that the world looked to in order to quickly provide treatments, cures, and vaccines to fight the disease. This renewed focus on pharma not only showed new opportunities that were suddenly created in the market, but also exposed fragile weaknesses in the supply chain.
Trends in the API industry may no longer be trending, and other more pressing matters have taken center stage. As we hope to close the book on COVID, we are now faced with a potentially devastating conflict in Eastern Europe.
Trend #1: Repatriating API supply
At the outset of COVID-19, while there were still many uncertainties about the disease, there was an immediate spike in the demand for various APIs, especially antibiotics and other anesthesia-related products to allow intubation for people on respirators.
It became clear that the raw materials, intermediates, and finished API for these products were sourced and manufactured almost exclusively in the Far East. Governments realized this the security risk associated with being so dependent on foreign ingredients that they made a priority to understand the implications of repatriating API supply.
The US government made available hundreds of millions of dollars to help manufacture pharmaceutical chemicals locally. In India for example, they realized that approximately 90% of the APIs used to manufacture antibiotics was imported. The government there began aggressively implementing a policy to increase local output.
In Europe they began consultations about the possibility to relocate API manufacturing back to the EU. As recently as late March 2022, the French government announced that it is prepared to buy 12% of a French API manufacturing company when it will be publically listed later in the year. A move like this will support the country’s sovereignty in the critical domain of pharmaceuticals.
Of course, all of these initiatives cost large sums of money and take years to implement, so the long term effects are yet to be seen.
Trend #2: Inflation, energy costs & the great resignation
One does not have to look far to realize the price of everything is increasing rapidly.
Inflation in the United States alone is at a 40 year high. This is a result of several factors, of which the three main ones include: printing money to pay for COVID-related relief programs, surges in demand unable to be met by supply, and soaring energy costs. These impact the cost of virtually every product, either in the actual production including the labor, or the transportation.
As the developed world attempts to shift to renewable, ‘clean’ energy, oil and natural gas remain the dominant forms of energy. The new conflict in Eastern Europe is causing a shock to the energy markets not seen in some time.
On the topic of labor, a unique phenomenon dubbed by economists, “The Great Resignation”, took place where employees worldwide are resigning from their jobs with no new job necessarily lined up. This may be caused by COVID-19 stimulus payments, fear of the pandemic, wage stagnation, among other things.
This phenomenon has caused labor shortages, and in theory, should result in higher wages as firms attract workers, driving up costs and further stimulating inflation.
To summarize, API production costs are increasing, as well as the costs for getting the API to the customer’s plant where it will be manufactured into the finished product.
Trend #3: Environmental Social and Governance (ESG)
Throughout all of the chaos and uncertainty of the past few years, one important item has continued to garner the attention of leading organizations in many industries. Companies are making commitments and investments in ESG matters.
For API companies especially, their effects on environment and society can be profound. Efforts to minimize impacts on climate change through reduced greenhouse gas emissions, including reductions in energy use, and overall increased use of renewable energy are priorities for forward thinking API companies.
From a social perspective, ensuring that pharmaceutical companies have steady supply and quick access to their API to support the lives of their patients in an equitable way. Ensuring that business is conducted in an ethical and compliant way, with proper quality and data privacy systems in place.
At Teva api, we’ve set ambitious ESG goals for ourselves. We’re putting a huge focus on minimizing our impact on climate change through reduced greenhouse gas emissions, including reductions in energy use and an overall increased use of renewable energy. Two of our main targets are to reduce facility water use by 10% by 2030, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25%.
ESG remains an emerging topic that will become more and more important with time.
Trend #4: Digitization
If the world was digitizing quickly before COVID, the pandemic shifted things into hyper drive.
People were suddenly spending even more time in front of their computers and mobile devices than before. When the pandemic first hit, digital tools were quickly deployed and virtual meetings replaced face-to-face interactions. It became more important than ever before to have a strong online presence.
For companies, having a comprehensive digital strategy became a differentiating factor in the marketplace. A well-developed corporate website is no longer sufficient. Companies must have a strong social media presence to better engage with their customers and understand them. Depending on the type of company, a customer portal may want to bring even more added value to the customer, with live data and information about their ongoing business.
So, how will all these trends influence the future of API production?
It’s hard to know. We cannot of course predict the future, and the trends we bring here are a result and analysis of our global presence and the support we provide to leading pharmaceutical companies, but we have outlined in broad terms how we see the market trending.
We see these trends as inevitably meaning closer partnerships between API producers and the pharmaceutical companies. R&D expertise, quality control and product purity are the result of know-how, hard work and common understanding. Data integrity requires the sharing of technologies and customized software. New APIs, no matter what technology is used to develop and manufacture them, require API producers to enter into very close working partnerships with the pharma companies
At the core of this relationship is partnership, trust, communication, and a dedication to quality, regulatory compliance and data integrity.
For a more detailed analysis of your particular area of API manufacture, compliance or data integrity please contact us. Our team of experts is on hand to help you with all your API needs.
The Latest ESG Report Outlines Our Incredible Efforts in 2020
At Teva api, we always remember how essential our work is to the wider community, and this was never more important than this past year, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. As Teva’s Chairman, Dr Sol J Barer said, “At Teva, it reminded us of our responsibility to patients, our employees, communities and the planet. It required us to adapt and conduct business as usual in the most unusual of times. It strengthened our resolve to elevate our words and actions in the face of social and racial injustice. And it reinforced climate change as a pressing concern that is not just environmental, but directly related to health.”
That’s why we are so happy to announce the results of the 2020 ESG report. This takes into account our environmental, social and corporate governance impact, and as a result, has put us in the top 10% of Pharma companies in terms of our Sustainalytics, the method that is used to measure and rate the relevant organizations.
Corporate Governance in Response to the Pandemic
In 2020, we continued to embed inclusion and diversity across the organization, including seeking high-quality, diverse talent at all levels of the business. 82% of employees agree that Teva promotes inclusion and diversity in its culture, which is a great thing to see. We also saw our best employee safety performance to date, which showed a 15% drop in recordable injuries.
In a global business, there is no ‘one way’ to be impacted by something like COVID-19. We are proud to say that we had zero COVID-19-related job losses, and as the pandemic evolves, we continue to put a lot of efforts into encouraging our staff to do what they need for their wellbeing and their families, including working flexibly, and taking paid vacation days when in need.
The Social Impact
The pandemic put medical care and access to pharmaceuticals under the spotlight, and the ESG report has certainly highlighted our ability to act under pressure. As Liran Nagar, our Teva api Global Supply Chain Hub leader, said, “There was no precedent for this. In my 16 years in supply chain, I’ve never encountered an emergency on such a grand, global scale.” Incredibly, the supply chain has remained “largely uninterrupted across all markets”, and we have made huge strides in speeding up and increasing production to meet the unprecedented need. We kept our labs open, our manufacturing sites running, and continued to serve almost 200 million people each day.,
Teva api has also taken an important role in identifying active ingredients related to COVID-19 treatments that can be of use to patients who are in intensive care units. Examples include inhalers to treat longer-term respiratory symptoms of COVID-19, and muscle relaxants that make it easier and safer to intubate patients. As one of the largest fully-integrated manufacturing and delivery networks in Pharma, we were integral in building what the ESG report calls “resilient supply chains.” We doubled the number of medicines we donated to patients in need in comparison to 2019, providing more than half a million dollars’ worth of critical supplies.
The Environment Belongs to Us All
Of course, despite a focused approach to handling the evolving pandemic, the environment needs our attention more than ever. Our environmental sustainability is a huge part of working towards a better, safer, cleaner world. Our goals are aggressive, looking to reduce Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 33% by 2030, in comparison to 2017. This year, we have reached 25% – an exciting milestone. We’ve also reduced total energy consumption by 6%, and water withdrawals by 13%, in the areas that need it the most.
As President and CEO of Teva, Kåre Schultz commented in the introduction to the 2020 Teva ESG report,
“While our approach is now more formalized, the tenets of ESG—operating responsibly and sustainably and caring for people and communities—have been ingrained in our company since our founding. As we celebrate 120 years of improving the lives of patients, we remain dedicated to advancing the health of our patients, our planet and our business.”
Teva Awarded an EcoVadis 2020 Silver Medal in Recognition of our Sustainability Rating
At Teva api, we are dedicated to leveraging our corporate resources and expertise to promote healthy communities all over the world. Our ambitious, wide-ranging Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) activities and our commitment to sustainability has just won us the 2020 EcoVadis Silver medal, reflecting our ongoing efforts to cultivate responsible business practices and positive social initiatives.
As the leading international supplier of quality active pharmaceutical ingredients, we support 75% of the top 50 global pharmaceutical companies via 16 manufacturing plants, five R&D centers, and seven sales offices, accumulating an annual $745.5M in sales. Serving nearly 1,100 customers in more than 75 countries, we are profoundly aware of our deep responsibility to not only comply with all applicable laws and regulations, but also actively work to exert a positive impact on the world around us.
Teva was awarded an EcoVadis 2020 Silver Medal for responsible conduct in environment, labor and human rights practices, ethics and sustainable procurement– a score placing us in the top 24% of all pharmaceutical companies rated by Ecovadis.
EcoVadis is the world’s most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings for global supply chains, with its famous scorecards providing invaluable, detailed insight into environmental, social, and ethical factors. Receiving the EcoVadis Silver medal is not only a huge honor for Teva and Teva api, but also confirmation that we are meeting our ambitious ESG performance goals.
The Teva 2019 ESG Progress Report, which was published a few months ago, clearly illustrates our steadfast commitment to patients and communities everywhere, in multiple areas:
Quality APIs
As generics play an increasingly significant role in global healthcare, questions are continually being raised about product quality. Are these affordable alternatives actually as safe and effective as their brand-name counterparts? Throughout the business landscape, and particularly where health is concerned, customers desire to collaborate with companies that not only supply reliably high-quality products, but also behave in a socially-responsible manner and have a positive impact on the environment.
Teva api, and Teva as a whole, exemplify the very best in both product quality and responsible citizenship. Our mission to improve patient lives and promote global health always comes first, empowering our dedication to absolute product quality and safety. Some 200 million people take our medicines daily, and we carefully monitor all our products throughout their entire lifecycle via our pharmacovigilance division, in strict compliance with global regulations.
In 2019, we gained approvals for 1,000+ generics, helping to make treatments more affordable. We also achieved significant improvements in safety management and environmental sustainability, while launching unique ESG activities that are driving meaningful change in communities worldwide.
Access to Medicines
Even the best, most effective medications become useless if patients have no way to access them. Although generics have revolutionized healthcare for millions of patients around the globe, dramatically reducing costs across the board, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that more than 50% of people still lack access to critical health services.
As the world’s leading provider of generic medicines, we continually strive to improve vulnerable populations’ access to quality healthcare and medicines, including those on the WHO’s Essential Medicines List, and expand our generics pipeline.
We recognize that healthcare access is a complex global issue that can only be addressed through diverse, sustained efforts that actively engage governments, NGOs, humanitarian organizations, healthcare professionals, and pharmaceutical companies in cross-sector partnerships.
In 2019, Teva donated $246M worth of medicines to patients around the world and partnered to address childhood cancer medicine shortages by supplying 17,000 vials of 13 medicines in Ethiopia.
Childhood Cancer Medicines Initiative
Teva manufactures 84% of cancer medicines listed on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Essential Medicines List (EML), so when Ethiopia faced a shortage of childhood cancer medicines, we formed an initiative with Access to Childhood Cancer Essentials (ACCESS), Direct Relief and the Ethiopian Pharmaceutical Fund Supply Agency (EPFSA) to address the problem.
We identified 13 Teva cancer medicines from the EML and sent 17,000 vials to Ethiopia within six weeks—a process that can typically take upwards of six to nine months. When the US faced a shortage of Vincristine, a childhood cancer medication, Teva announced that it would re-introduce the product, manufacturing it at one of its US plants, in order to provide the product to the market faster. Teva hopes the reintroduction will help address the shortages and bring this life-saving medicine to children in need.
As our 2019 ESG Progress Report describes, Teva and its pharmaceutical ingredients division, Teva api, have made great strides forward in endorsing meaningful social initiatives and research dedicated to improving the health of underserved communities worldwide. However, we also recognize that this is an ongoing process.
As Kåre Schultz, President & CEO Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., said:
“Looking to the future, we will continue to advance our ESG efforts to create value for our investors, employees and many stakeholders. We will strive for full compliance, while demonstrating integrity, ensuring the quality of our medicines and keeping patients at the heart of what we do. .”
Our commitment to making a positive impact is at the heart of everything we do. Producing quality active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) so that our customers can create high-quality medicines, depends on us operating responsibly, ethically, and transparently.
In the last 5 years, we’ve reduced our Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) by 80%, our Process Safety Event Rate by 60%, and the number of significant spills by 75%. We’ve also increased the reporting of near-misses (of accidents) by over 500%, enabling us to properly investigate the potential causes of a serious accident. We had over 21,000 EHS&S observations each year for the past two years that either led to immediate corrections of minor risks or encouraged improved practices.
In terms of environmental impact, we’ve reduced our waste generation by over 50%, and by 10% (9,350 metric tons) since 2018. To fight water scarcity, we’re doing our best to reduce our water usage, with a reduction of 10% (215,560 cubic meters) since 2018.
Our investment
We’ve invested a significant portion of our capital expenditure – over 100 million dollars – to reduce the biggest risks. These include major fire protection improvements, and securing dedicated and protected storage for chemicals.
We’ve improved our engineering controls to reduce the risk of potent compound exposure for our employees. We’ve minimized our environmental footprint with wastewater treatment plant improvements, and we are optimizing our environmental control units to minimize emissions of volatile organic compounds in the atmosphere.
Improving processes
We’ve introduced many new processes, with incredible support from our site managers and operations leadership, who fully embraced our goals and our mindset. We ran a process safety management survey with all of our sites and published safe-handling guidelines for highly toxic hazardous materials. We also implemented process safety management standards across all of the sites and created a comprehensive training program for our employees.
Our motivation
The road to EHS&S excellence is long and sometimes bumpy, but what matters is to stay focused on our goals and vision to ‘Target Zero’, which means zero accidents, zero injuries, and zero releases (spills and accidental discharges).
I truly believe that each initiative and every process we’ve implemented is another step in helping us to reach that goal and we are aiming to become a reference for excellence in the pharma industry.
Social initiatives to reduce our environmental footprint
We’ve always got different projects going on within the different sites, and our teams are keen to get involved in social initiatives.
Just one example comes from our Gajraula site, where approximately 100 employees recently volunteered to help clean the Ganga river (India’s longest river). People in India regard this river as a goddess and believe that the water is holy. The Indian government is taking an active interest in cleaning the water, and various funds have been set up to support the cause.
The Teva api team collected about 2.0 metric tons of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste from the river. The biodegradable waste was then buried to be used as compost, and the non-biodegradable waste was set aside to be recycled. It was a great day for a great cause.
To access the Teva 2019 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Progress Report, click here
Teva api division is adding a new capability to its industry-leading products and services: API sterilization
We are expanding our basket of services, and we are pleased to share with you a new service of sterilization service through aseptic filtration.
You are now able to rely on Teva api’s vast expertise, state of the art facilities and latest best-in-class resources to address your product formulation needs and achieve your goals. Sterilization provides another valuable solution that may factor into your consideration set when selecting an API supplier.
Sterilization capability designed for your needs
Teva api new facility is offering API sterilization using the aseptic filtration technique for production, quantities from a few kilograms to hundreds of kilograms. It will be able to support a wide variety of products with different characteristics (i.e. OHC levels, volumes).
We are able to sterilize materials from two sources:
1. For a molecule within Teva api portfolio, we can provide an end-to-end solution including API synthesis and its sterilization
2. Teva api can provide sterilization services for APIs from other sources
Aseptic Filtration
Aseptic filtration is a process where, under aseptic conditions, a dissolved API is filtered through a membrane to ensure the removal of all biological contamination.
Unlike other sterilization methods (like heat and gamma irradiation), it has significant advantages over other methods:
It does not damage the API, which is essential for sensitive products
It does not form new impurities during the sterilization process.
Dedicated facility producing quality results
Our scientific know-how and rigorous standards are incorporated in all aspects of our new manufacturing site Teva api Croatia. We chose to place the sterilization facility within one of our Croatian sites, which is one of our best manufacturing sites, with a good history of production. Clear from regulatory issues and approved by the FDA, this site is working with customers from around the world and is expert and knowledgeable in requirements for all markets, it is also cGMP certified.
The facility, which is built to comply with cGMP standards as well, has already reached operational readiness, with the first batches of sterilized products ready to ship in Dec 2019.
We were closely coordinating with the FDA and local regulatory authorities globally throughout construction, to ensure our facility is in compliance of regulatory requirements.
Stringent processes for sterility
Teva api’s sterilization facility is using dual packaging to ensure sterility of the final API, which can be configured to meet the customer’s requirements.
An on-site microbiological lab is monitoring API sterility and the sterility of the facility itself to ensure we use the best processes to avoid product contamination.
Download our now to discover how Teva api strives to provide an exceptional service and customer experience, along with advanced high quality API sterilization solution that can answer your needs.
Anticipating a need for aseptic filtration?
Contact us to find out how we can help. One of our account managers or customer experience experts will be happy to answer your questions and discuss your specific API sterilization needs.
Why lumping and flowability are an industry pain that is difficult to resolve… and why Teva api is determined to do something about it
Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients have several important physical powder properties including hygroscopicity, compactability, flowability and lumping.
Powders are complex materials… they could even be accused of having personalities…
Not flowing
Sticky
Not loose
Sensitive
(Flowing) Not spontaneously
See how Teva api’s R&D experts can help you with flowability and lumping.
Several pharmaceutical processes including storage of powder, transportation, blending and compaction are influenced by powder behavior. Powder behavior issues such as flowability and lumping have been major challenges for the pharmaceutical industry, which works mainly with powders. These phenomena are complex, poorly understood and handled, and require prior experience and advanced analytical tools in order to be understood and resolved.
Flowability in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients
Flowability – is the ability of powder to move in a specific system. The powders are lined up from “free flowing” powder to “non-flowing” powder.
Flowability of a powder refers to the specific relevant system. The same powder can flow with no issues in one system but will face difficulties in a different pharma equipment.
Flowability is a complex factor influenced by multi physical properties. Therefore the key to improve flowability will rarely be a small change in one production parameter and will not be characterized by a single analytical test.
Combinations of analytical tests (such as: angle of repose, compressibility index and Hausner ratio, flow through an orifice, shear cell methods) and deep evaluation of:
Material features (electrostatic charge, cohesion and hygroscopicity)
Production parameters (drying, milling processes)
Environment conditions (humidity, moisture content and storage container)
Pharma equipment that the powder should flow through
Will provide that starting point for improving the way the powder moves in pharma equipment.
The analytical tool can be useful in order to evaluate “better flowing” material, can distinguish between batches and allow you to have fine-tuning on your production parameters in order to comply with pharma requests and formulation instrumentation.
Lumping in Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients
Lumping can occur during storage: small aggregates accumulating over time within the powder, in extreme cases the entire powder takes on the shape of the container.
Lumping can also occur during drying: during solvent removal, lumps requiring “pre-milling” are created and in some specific cases, the lumps are too large to be milled by conventional means.
Lumps formation in the API is studied already in the early R&D stage. Several aspects of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient are considered in order to predict lumps formation: solubility, hygroscopicity, package information, particle size (milled, micronized) and solvents used in the last process step. Using multiple analytical tools such as microscopy, contact angle, PSD, lumping prediction in small scale, surface area, bulk and tapped density, angle of repose and more, Teva api is able to predict and control lumping in our APIs.
Lumping can be characterized by many analytical tools such as: microscopy and surface area (SSA)
Solving lumping issues, a case study
Tackles lumping is an Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient that has been produced by Teva api for more than 20 years and was known as lumped material. The solution to this lumping came from our customer’s formulation equipment that had separated all the lumps. A request from another customer raised the need of Teva api to evaluate the root cause and find a lasting solution to the phenomenon. One known technique to prevent lumps forming is to change the drying procedure. In this particular case, being the material highly hygroscopic, it was discovered that the discharge of the material from the drier needs to happen at a temperature very close to room temperature to prevent water absorption during cooling which could bring to the formation of water bridges.
After taking this precaution the lumping formation was reduced, but still some small lumps were observed in the material.
Further analyses led us to discover that residual solvent from the crystallization process can also contribute to the creation of lumps.
Residual solvent that was trapped in the wet part of the powder (part of the powder that was not well stirred or left in the corners of the dryer) was contributing to these smaller lumps. So additional drying was needed for that layer.
Another way to prevent lumping involves the packaging of the powders, this solution is recommended in cases of soluble material in water or in organic solvent.
All grades of particle size of this material had a tendency to lump over time. Extended drying and cooling prior to unloading solved the issue for the large and medium grades.
The fine grade material (micronized grade) would often lump even at the end of milling. Along with extended drying and cold unloading, packaging with N2 has prevented lumping for at least 6 months after packing.
This complex problem is a challenge we accept on behalf of our customers
With our years of experience in the improvement of powder flowability and the prevention of lumping, Teva api is the industry leader. Teva api is constantly looking at new techniques, procedures and products that improve our customer’s end product experiences and their satisfaction with our Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients. By working in close cooperation with our customers we are ensuring that the properties of our powders match our customer’s expectation.
