Centrient achieves PNEC compliance for SSPs

As part of our Sustainable Antibiotics programme, Centrient has developed an innovative method to detect antibiotic activity levels in treated wastewater. Our recently launched ‘Project PNEC’ builds on this approach. The project is designed to achieve full compliance with the safe discharge targets developed and adopted by the AMR Industry Alliance.

Predicted No-Effect Concentration (PNEC) refers to the concentration of antibiotics in water at which there are unlikely to be adverse environmental effects or risks of antimicrobial resistance developing. To this end, we have developed and validated a highly sensitive method of analysis at a third party.

We are firmly on track to reach our 2021 objective of meeting the PNEC target values for all wastewater streams, including at our supplier sites. In fact, in 2019 our largest portfolio, the semi-synthetic penicillin (SSP) active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) range, met the PNEC targets two years ahead of schedule. Additionally, 87% of our FDF sustainable manufacturing has so far been assessed, and this production is compliant with PNEC values.