Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

Fact: antimicrobial resistance, or AMR, is a growing threat to public health worldwide. By working with our partners, we know it’s a battle we can win.

Antimicrobial resistance is no longer the distant threat it was once considered to be. Worldwide, approximately 700,000 deaths are already linked to AMR each year. The time for action is now: the entire pharmaceutical supply chain must work together to contain this growing issue.

As a global leader in pharmaceuticals, we know exactly what’s expected of us, and we maintain rigid control over how we manage, treat and dispose of antibiotic waste. But our responsibilities don’t end there, which is why we have made combatting AMR one of the three core pillars of our organisational sustainability strategy.

Our commitment to AMR prevention and eradication sees us play a central role in tackling this critical health issue. Globally, we are working with partners and suppliers across the value chain, helping decision-makers in industry and government to improve AMR standards and policies, and developing awareness and best practice in the regions where it’s needed most.

Lowering the risk of AMR

High concentrations of antibiotic residues in factory wastewater can lead to hotspots of resistant bacteria. As a leader in penicillin antibiotics, we must act responsibly: by investing in state-of-the-art wastewater technologies, we’re taking steps to avoid contributing to AMR.

Meanwhile, through our company-wide Sustainable Antibiotics programme, we’ve developed an innovative way of detecting antibiotic activity levels in treated wastewater as low as 50 parts per billion (equivalent to 50 mg per 1,000 litres). This rigorous method has been in place at our sites worldwide since 2016.

Building on this record, Centrient launched Project PNEC, designed to achieve full compliance with the safe discharge targets developed and adopted by the AMR Industry Alliance. The 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. 

In 2022, Centrient Pharmaceuticals announced 100% compliance with the stringent Predicted No Effect Concentration (PNEC) discharge targets set by the AMR Industry Alliance for clean manufacturing of its full oral antibiotics product range. This standard covers both Centrient’s sites and its suppliers’ sites. This achievement positions the company as a frontrunner in the industry with the delivery of responsibly-produced antibiotics, which minimize the possible contribution to antimicrobial resistance.