Chris Hirst, CEO
Making the green transition a reality – excerpts from Orbia’s Zephex Summit panel discussion
Orbia Fluor & Energy Materials’ Zephex Summit event showcased the company’s investment into infrastructure to supply commercial-scale medical grade low GWP propellant HFA-152a. In the panel discussion, Chris Hirst joined fellow leading players in the industry to discuss Bespak’s role in moving the green transition forward.
Building our strategy around industry needs
Leading the transition to low carbon respiratory care is Bespak’s mission, so our entire strategy as the specialist inhalation CDMO has been shaped with this in mind.
As manufacturers, we have the opportunity – and the responsibility – to make pMDIs more sustainable. This responsibility is particularly significant for Bespak, given that as an industry we manufacture close to one billion pMDIs every year. These medicines are vital for patients, their families and prescribers, so maintaining supply whilst reducing environmental impact is critical.
To tie in with this, we are also working hard to make sure we consider our full environmental footprint, beyond our prioritiy of pMDIs. Our recently released ESG Update details the progress made in 2024, showcasing our commitment to strategically embedding sustainability across all of our operations. In brief – the green transition is our reason for being, and we’re using it to drive us to be even better.
The UK as a hub of low GWP excellence
Taking a strategic approach to the green transition is important. It’s exciting to see all the investment into low carbon pMDI infrastructure in the UK, and we’re well placed to leverage and contribute to this. We have consolidated our sites and Bespak is now based solely in the UK, allowing us to focus our own investments in an area that already has a strong collaborative network for pMDI development and supply. The Northwest of England in particular can support the full pMDI ecosystem, from canisters supplied by H&T Presspart in Blackburn and manufacturing at Bespak in Holmes Chapel, to supplies of HFA-152a propellant from Orbia in Runcorn and clinical excellence through the Medicines Evaluation Unit in Manchester. Add in valves from Bespak in King’s Lynn, equipment from DH Industries in Essex and development excellence at Oz-UK in Chippenham, to cite just a few more examples, and we have the strongest pMDI footprint anywhere in the world. And now with the expansion of Orbia’s manufacturing capacity through the construction of its new plant in Runcorn, this local supply chain will be further strengthened.
We, alongside our local partners, also benefit from the UK’s innovation ecosystem, with significant investment into medicines development and manufacturing, as well as education and training. This means we have access to a highly skilled workforce – something we are proud to contribute to through our own training and development programmes including apprenticeships.
With all of this in place, the UK is truly a strategic centre for the low carbon pMDI transition.
Sustainable supply chain practices
When considering the supply chain, sustainability efforts must go beyond individual organisations and consider all the stages involved in creating value. At Bespak, our partnerships go some way towards this, and we’re working to embed sustainability across the full inhalation supply chain. Our ESG Update details how we’re assessing our full supply chain footprint, working with our suppliers to align on values and ensure that high standards for sustainability are reached across all our operations.
Another key facet to consider is aligning suppliers with the needs of customers. Our customer base is huge. We supply over a million valves per day, and work with more than 100 customers around the world, so there will be a breadth of different needs amongst these businesses. It’s a complicated landscape, and suppliers must have awareness of what is most important at every stage of the supply chain. Having a deep understanding of this landscape combined with customer intimacy is crucial to making this possible.
Collaborating for a common goal
The industry previously transitioned away from ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) propellants, but the current transition to low GWP propellants is moving much faster. This means that no individual organisation can afford to stand alone. As an industry we must forge partnerships and work together to enable a smooth transition that balances the needs of patients and the planet. Collaborating with partners and suppliers both upstream and downstream is hugely important, but so is knowledge sharing and an open approach with other CDMOs and pharma companies to ensure we transition as many products as we can, collectively.
Whilst competition between key players is natural and helps to drive innovation and economic growth in the sector, this transition demands the industry put that aside to work together. Sharing knowledge and expertise is absolutely vital for achieving our shared goals, and we are seeing a real openness to collaboration and a willingness to work together that is unlike anything the industry has experienced before.
Regulation, legislation and timelines
The green transition is a culmination of evolving demand and tightening climate legislation. Across the industry, we’ve been working hard to get the technology, expertise and infrastructure in place, and now finalising regulatory guidance is one of the last pieces of the puzzle.
At Bespak, we maintain open communication with regulatory agencies and hold memberships with key influencing bodies such as the International Pharmaceutical Aerosol Consortium on Regulation & Science (IPAC-RS) to help shape regulations that benefit the industry. On top of this, however, it is important to keep a patient-centric view and continue to push progress that helps maintain patient access to pMDIs. Lack of urgency can have significant consequences. For example, policy that encourages healthcare providers to prescribe alternative device types can have negative impacts on patient confidence in their medicines. It is therefore vital for us to keep trusted pMDIs as available to patients as we possibly can, and accelerate the transition at every chance we identify.
Change is already underway, with early adopters of low GWP propellants now beginning to commercialise their low carbon pMDI products. Within the next few years, we will see many more developers begin to transition, as the regulatory process becomes more established. The final stage of the transition will likely occur a beyond 2030 – however, despite phase-out deadlines, these late-movers may still need to move faster than legislated due to ever-shrinking availability of currently used propellants.
To enable all phases of the green transition and to continue to provide patients with their trusted medicines, the pathways must be clear and the supply chain must be aligned to suit the needs of everyone involved. At Bespak, we’re committed to achieving this, through specialist inhalation expertise, collaboration and leadership.
