In an effort to help address packaging waste in the pharmaceutical industry, Agilyx has joined the Sustainable Medicines Partnership (SMP) as a programme collaborator and technology partner. SMP is a collaboration of some of the leading players in the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors. Agilyx joins other founding collaborators including AstraZeneca and Deloitte. YewMaker, the executive lead of the SMP, created the not-for-profit entity with an aim to make healthcare more sustainable by reducing the billions of medicines wasted every year.

This collaboration with SMP represents an important focus area for Agilyx, as its feedstock and technology solutions will be leveraged by SMP and its partners with the goal of developing closed-loop recycling for pharmaceutical packaging, material that has previously been considered difficult to recycle.  This exciting new project opens new pathways for Agilyx technology while building on the capabilities of both Cyclyx and Agilyx to address the most challenging plastic waste.

Roughly one trillion medicine packets are discarded each year, destined for landfill or incineration even though most medicines plastics could be recycled. Agilyx will concentrate efforts on SMP’s key priority of tackling discarded plastics and using it as a resource to deliver sustainable packaging to the pharmaceutical industry.

“Sustainable Medicines Partnership has an exemplary goal to make medicines more sustainable and equitable. Agilyx is extremely proud to join SMP in its work to reduce waste in medicines packaging,” said Tim Stedman, CEO of Agilyx. “There is a perception out there that blister packs can’t be recycled but that is not the case. Our proven technology can incorporate the PVC from blister packs into feedstock recipes that can create a more sustainable solution for these high-grade medical products.”

“Packaging plays an essential role in ensuring the quality and safety of medicines. Developing circular solutions to reduce single use of plastics in medicines packaging is a key focus of the SMP.  We are delighted Agilyx, who are leading innovators in recycling complex plastics, will be working with us,” said Nazneen Rahman, YewMaker CEO, SMP Director

Agilyx will work with SMP to deliver tested, data-driven, scalable solutions to address the factors that have previously made these materials hard to recycle such as the chemical complexity of the plastics involved and the logistical difficulties with collection, sorting and disposal in a highly siloed industry. Beginning in early 2022, the collaboration will first focus on blister packs, a leading example of a material historically thought to be unrecyclable.