The innovative pharmaceutical industry remains firmly committed to advancing climate action and broader environmental sustainability. Product-specific environmental information is increasingly of interest for various stakeholders of the healthcare industry, due to its insightful contribution to the industry’s decarbonisation and progress towards environmental sustainability.Until now, the absence of a harmonised, pharmaceutical-specific standard for PCFs or Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) has led to divergent methodologies and inconsistent results across the sector.

To address this gap, PAS 2090:2025 – Pharmaceutical products: Product category rules for environmental life cycle assessments was sponsored by NHS England, the Office for Life Sciences (OLS) and the Pharmaceutical LCA Consortium, working together with the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Health Systems Task Force and the Pharmaceutical Environment Group (PEG). Its development was facilitated by the British Standards Institution (BSI). Published on 30 November 2025, PAS 2090 represents the first publicly available specification establishing harmonised, internationally applicable Product Category Rules for LCAs and PCFs of pharmaceutical products. It sets essential requirements for data quality, methodological consistency and transparent reporting.

EFPIA member companies are committed to proactively collaborate with stakeholders and global authorities to lay the foundation for a harmonised PCF framework for pharmaceuticals and recognize PAS 2090 as the most robust approach available.