Young Dutch designer shows EU pharma the way in climate change fight

With the Dutch healthcare sector responsible for 7% of all greenhouse gas emissions, pharmaceutical companies are joining the fight against climate change. On such an important mission, it’s all hands on deck and no one is too young to contribute.

Emma Linders, a recent graduate, designed a reusable autoinjector for her thesis and scooped a national James Dyson Award. Moreover, the prototype of her device was featured during this year’s Dutch Design Week.

Autoinjectors are usually single-use devices that patients use to treat themselves for things like allergic reactions, chronic diseases, and, as in Linders’ case, migraines.

Once used, the autoinjectors usually end up getting incinerated. In an attempt to lower the waste, energy, and CO₂ emissions connected to autoinjectors, Linders designed the Ypsomate Refill – an autoinjector that can be sterilised and refilled.

She came up with the idea because of her monthly use of autoinjectors to prevent migraines.

While a pile of 12 injectors a year may seem small, when one considers all patients using them (some more frequently than others), that pile grows to 150 million incinerated autoinjectors yearly, which release 120,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions in the process.

“I thought it was a huge waste”, Linders told Euractiv.

She, therefore, decided to take a critical look at how the situation can be improved, which is how her master’s thesis project on integrated product design at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) was born.

“The benefit is that it’s as simple to use as the regular autoinjector,” Linders said.

That means that patients don’t need to go to a doctor to receive their injection but can administer it themselves. A patient never sees the actual needle, and it’s very safe to use.

“That’s the case for all autoinjectors. But mine isn’t incinerated after use. So it can be easily returned to a refill hub by the patient through their pharmacy or post. Then, it can be disinfected, refilled, and checked for quality, and it can go to another patient,” Linders said.

“So, the main benefit is that it’s reducing the amount of medical waste and CO₂ emissions by 60% in comparison to other single-use autoinjectors.”

According to tests she ran, that 60% reduction can be achieved with just five reuses of an autoinjector.

Linders’ autoinjector was also featured during this year’s Dutch Design Week, where she had the opportunity to introduce it to Queen Máxima of the Netherlands. Linders now works at the Leiden-based design agency npk design.

Legislation, then marketing

Although she completed her master’s, it’s not the end of the road for the YpsoMate Refill:  Linders said the Alliance to Zero, an organisation that aims to facilitate the pharma sector’s transition to net zero, is exploring her project’s future directions.

“It’s not on the market right now because of legislation issues and some of the logistics that still need to be figured out,” she explained.

Linders described her project in Sweden last October at a conference on pre-filled injection devices organised by the Parenteral Drug Association (PDA). Reactions to her design from the pharma companies present there ranged from curiosity to scepticism.

“The sector moves in incremental steps to ensure everything is safe for the patient, is well tested, and fits within legislation. Which, of course, makes sense because it’s about people’s health,” said Linders.

“But they were optimistic that maybe in 10 or 15 years, this could be a reality. And to make that a reality, we already have to look into what steps we need to take right now,” she added.

Linders said EU legislators should discuss what legislation is needed for circular products with the industry and universities.

“In some countries, you’re not allowed to recycle these autoinjectors because you cannot remove the needle beforehand. So they have to be thrown out. With insulin pens, people can remove the needle before. So they can be reused. In France, they made an exception, so now they can reuse autoinjectors,” Linders told Euractiv.

She said that while the EU aims to become climate-neutral by 2050, it’s not giving people all the tools to do this. “There’s a lot that’s not allowed. And with good reason. But I think there’s more space [to be pragmatic],” Linders added.

Annelies de Lange-Douma, the sustainability program manager for the Dutch Association of Innovative Medicines (VIG), a member of EFPIA, said that they had started an insulin pen return project to combat plastic waste.

Some of their partners include Lilly, Roche, Novo Nordisk, and Johnson & Johnson. This task was made slightly simpler since the returned pens don’t have a needle inside them.

“And as we were getting this started, we heard of Emma Linders, and we asked her to join our starting session,” de Lange-Douma told Euractiv. Linders’ work was of particular interest to them since she had come up with solutions that dealt with the needles inside autoinjectors.

De Lange-Douma said they now need to convince decision-makers that reusing such devices is possible with new techniques and that patients also want to return them for reuse.

“We would really love for the circle to be closed and for the FDAs and the EMAs to cooperate on this and allow non-virgin material to end up in new pens,” de Lange-Douma said.

“And that’s what we really want because after the pens, we want to start with the inhalers and with the applicators and whatever medical device is next. A lot of companies are asking us: When can we start on this?” she added.

[By Christoph Schwaiger – Edited by Vasiliki Angouridi/Zoran Radosavljevic | Euractiv.com]

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