The disposal of expired and unused medications has always been an important issue, with many commonly used family medications expiring after a long period of time, as well as pharmaceutical waste or stagnation in companies and pharmacies during the manufacturing and distribution process. Expired and unused medications need to be disposed of properly, and medical recycling is the preferred method of safe disposal. Here are four foreign companies that specialize in medical recycling.
MedSafeWaste
MedSafeWaste specializes in the recycling and disposal of medical waste, and offers a variety of services including medical waste disposal, pharmaceutical waste disposal, and training in medical waste classification. In the area of pharmaceutical recycling, MedsafeWaste focuses on providing pharmaceutical waste disposal services on-site at pharmaceutical plants, as well as return services for expired and unused medications for pharmacies. The company is a DEA-licensed reverse distributor for all medications, including DEA-regulated opioids.
Stericycle
Stericycle is a well-established U.S.-based waste recycling company founded in 1989, with more than 25 years of experience in medical, industrial, and household waste recycling and disposal, and offers a variety of services to healthcare organizations and retail pharmacies. The main services include drug recalls, drug searches, expired and broken drug returns, and pharmaceutical waste recycling services.Stericycle separates and disposes of different pharmaceutical wastes in accordance with EPA and local regulations. For example, non-RCRA hazardous waste medications are disposed of by incineration, while other waste medications are segregated and then disposed of through different routes.
Deterra
Deterra is committed to developing scientifically validated research-based solutions to reduce the negative environmental impacts of drug abuse, and discarded medications.Deterra is supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), a sub-division of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which sponsors the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (a subsection of the National Institutes of Health), Deterra, unlike other drug recycling companies, is developing a Deterra drug inactivation bag through its patented Verde platform with MAT12 molecular adsorbent technology.The Deterra drug inactivation bag is made of environmentally friendly materials, and the medication that is placed into the bag is adsorbed into the bag by the bag's activated charcoal, which ultimately decomposes into water and carbon dioxide along with the Deterra drug inactivation bag***. ** with the decomposition of water and carbon dioxide. These bags can be used in homes, healthcare facilities, pharmacies, and other locations at a low cost, allowing expired or unused medications to be disposed of in a simpler landfill rather than incinerated.
Sirum
In many cases, healthcare organizations or pharmacies choose to destroy medications instead of collecting, sorting, and recycling them. Due to the extremely harsh and costly conditions for recycling drugs, it is better to just destroy the drugs rather than recycling them according to the harsh conditions. Every year, billions of dollars worth of drugs are destroyed by hospitals, pharmacies, drug manufacturers and nursing homes. Sirum aims to change that by making it easy for healthcare organizations and pharmacies to donate medications.Founded by three Stanford graduates, GeeWang, Adam Kircher, and Kiah Williams, Sirum tracks medications through a database of the national average cost of access to medications, creates a platform to connect donors and recipients, and coordinates donation logistics that include accessing medication lists, tracking, and shipping medications. By donating, rather than destroying, their unused medications, donors save processing time and gain revenue, and recipients are able to afford their medications within their financial means.
Currently, drug recycling in China, especially high-priced drug recycling, has become a black industrial chain. Although drug recycling faces the challenges of *** control and high cost, with the improvement of drug recycling laws and the continued growth of unmet medical needs for expensive drugs such as cancer drugs, the field of drug recycling and reutilization may derive a new business model and give birth to a number of new enterprises.