Table 4. “Ready to put in place” measures to reduce carbon-associated emissions during drug development for PVBD.

Required attitudes and behaviour change	Prompt benefits
Reduce single-use plastic.	Cost saving, decrease carbon footprint, decrease plastic waste production, healthier environment.
Reduce energy consumption.	Cost saving, decrease carbon footprint, healthier environment.
Replace, reduce, and refine use of laboratory animals.	Protect animal welfare, save on cost, decrease carbon footprint, healthier environment.
Include education towards One Health, Planetary Health and Principles of Sustainability and good management of natural resources into Pharmacology, Biology and MedChem curriculae.	Ground the future generations of researchers in sustainable laboratory practices for solid and long-lasting transformation into greener research practices and environmentally safer drugs.
Establish models to assess the ecotoxicological impact of drugs for PVBDs and incorporate such evaluation into the drug development pipeline.	Early removal of any drug with severe ecotoxicological impact from the drug discovery pipeline; balanced decision making by weighing the environmental burden, in its intended ecological setting 1 , against the pharmacological advance for a neglected PVBDs.
Incorporate the assessment of a new compound’s biodegradability and ecotoxicological effects as a pre-requisite for a marketing authorization.	Avoid introducing drugs with potentially severely negative expected impact on the environment to the market.

¹e.g. marine ecotoxicity is highly relevant for a drug used in fish farming but less so for a drug intended to treat trypanosomiasis in camels.