Makassar — The growing use of pharmaceuticals has brought major benefits to human and animal health, but it has also increased the release of pharmaceutical residues into the environment. A review by Fauziah Hasdin and Sri Magfirah HS from the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Negeri Makassar, found that pharmaceutical residues can contaminate water and ecosystems, affect aquatic organisms, accumulate in food chains, and contribute to antimicrobial resistance. The review highlights ecopharmacovigilance (EPV) as an approach for monitoring, assessing, and reducing the environmental impacts of pharmaceuticals.
Pharmaceutical residues enter the environment through multiple pathways. Medicines used by humans and animals can leave residues through urine and feces. Healthcare facility wastewater, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and the improper disposal of unused or expired medicines are additional sources. These residues have been detected in surface water, groundwater, sediments, soil, and even drinking water in different countries.
The environmental concern is intensified by the persistence of some pharmaceutical compounds. Conventional wastewater treatment does not completely remove all pharmaceutical residues, allowing certain compounds to remain in the environment and potentially accumulate in ecosystems. Long-term exposure may affect the physiology, reproduction, endocrine systems, growth, and behavior of aquatic organisms.
Antibiotic residues are particularly concerning because environmental exposure can contribute to the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance. This means pharmaceutical pollution is not solely an environmental problem. It can also affect human and animal health, creating a need for an integrated approach that connects environmental, animal, and human health through the One Health framework.
Hasdin and Sri Magfirah HS explain that ecopharmacovigilance expands the scope of conventional pharmacovigilance. While conventional pharmacovigilance primarily focuses on medicine safety for patients, EPV considers the effects of pharmaceuticals on humans, animals, plants, and ecosystems. Its implementation includes environmental monitoring, Environmental Risk Assessment (ERA), green pharmacy, sustainable pharmaceutical waste management, and cooperation among regulators, pharmaceutical companies, healthcare professionals, academics, and the public.
The authors conducted a narrative review to examine the development, implementation, and challenges of EPV. Literature was searched through PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, and Google Scholar. The review considered research and review articles published between January 2021 and June 2026 in English or Indonesian. A total of 30 studies met the selection criteria and were included in the review.
The 30 studies covered multiple countries and research designs, including narrative reviews, systematic reviews, observational studies, meta-analyses, computational studies, and critical reviews. The overall evidence shows that EPV is developing as a multidisciplinary field connecting pharmaceutical sciences, environmental sciences, public health, and regulatory policy.
The review identifies several pharmaceutical groups as important environmental contaminants, including antibiotics, analgesics, hormones, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and psychotropic medicines. Studies included in the review have detected these substances in aquatic environments and documented potential effects on aquatic organisms. In addition, pharmaceutical metabolites and transformation products may have toxicity comparable to or even greater than the original compounds.
This finding means environmental monitoring should not focus exclusively on the original pharmaceutical compounds. Metabolites and transformation products also need to be considered. Technologies such as liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC–MS/MS) and ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) have improved the detection of pharmaceutical residues in environmental samples. Predictive models and artificial intelligence are also increasingly being explored to estimate pharmaceutical distribution and ecological risks.
Implementing EPV requires cooperation across multiple sectors. Recommended strategies include rational medicine use, eco-directed prescribing, medicine take-back programs, improved pharmaceutical wastewater treatment, and public education about the proper disposal of unused medicines. Pharmacists also have a strategic role in educating patients, promoting appropriate medicine use, and supporting pharmaceutical waste management in healthcare facilities.
Despite growing interest in EPV, implementation still faces significant challenges. Environmental monitoring infrastructure remains inadequate in some regions, environmental impacts are underreported within existing pharmacovigilance systems, regulatory requirements are not fully harmonized across countries, and public awareness of pharmaceutical waste management remains limited. The review also highlights evidence from VigiBase showing that environmental impact reports remain far fewer than reports of adverse drug reactions in humans.
Future developments in EPV are expected to benefit from digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and big data. These technologies could strengthen environmental monitoring and improve the prediction of ecological risks. The authors also emphasize the importance of integrating EPV into pharmaceutical regulation, public health policies, and environmental protection strategies to support more sustainable pharmaceutical management.
Hasdin and Sri Magfirah HS conclude that reducing the environmental burden of pharmaceutical residues requires integration between pharmacovigilance, Environmental Risk Assessment, green pharmacy, and the One Health approach. Stronger regulations, integrated environmental monitoring, rational medicine use, sustainable pharmaceutical waste management, and greater involvement of healthcare professionals are essential to strengthen EPV implementation.
The review also calls for long-term environmental monitoring, standardized EPV indicators, validated artificial intelligence-based predictive models, and further evaluation of EPV interventions and policies across different healthcare and environmental settings. Such efforts could strengthen the evidence base for more sustainable pharmaceutical management and help reduce the ecological and public health risks associated with pharmaceutical pollution.
Authors
Fauziah Hasdin — Universitas Negeri Makassar.
Sri Magfirah HS — Universitas Negeri Makassar.
Research Source
“Ecopharmacovigilance: Concepts, Developments, and Implementation in Reducing the Environmental Impact of Pharmaceuticals,” East Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Research (EAJMR), Vol. 5, No. 8, 2026, pp. 3299–3314.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55927/eajmr.v5i8.253
Journal: https://journaleajmr.my.id/index.php/eajmr
0 Komentar