The idea behind pCure Labs

Intro to pCure products

pCure is a collection of household products that have an effect on selected pharmaceutical residues. The active ingredient in the products is enzymes. During normal product usage, enzymes are released into the connected sewage water system. In the sewage water, the enzymes act on target pharmaceutical residues.

The full overview of the of the products description can be found within the products definition. For general questions about the product you can either use our messenger to ask us directly or visit our wiki/helpdesk.

Environmental Concern

Each compound have different statuses dependent on its environmental impact which tells us how concerned we should be for it being released into nature. Based on public available information we have converted this to three simple categories.

High: There is documented evidence that the substance has serious negative impact on the environment and ecosystems. pCure is keeping a close eye on this substance with the vision to develop the products towards it. The goal is to develop the product to be verified towards as many of substances with this status as possible.

Moderate: There is documented evidence that the substance has some negative impact on the environment. pCure is keeping an eye on this substance and may include it in future product upgrades. pCure can still verify its effect towards compounds with this category, but its focus will be on compounds with more serious environmental impact.

Low: There is either documented evidence that the substance has low negative impact on the environment, or that evidence is lacking so no conclusions can be made. The substance are consider not of certain concern for product development. pCure can still verify its effect towards substances with this category, but its focus will be on compounds with more serious environmental impact.

Effect evaluation

Product effects are continuously evaluated before made available to the public. As the products are further developed it will also become more and more efficient, which also increases the tractability of result data.

Verification process: Substances that are given a verified status have undergone a certain verification process, which has been developed according to the product definition. Different analysis is performed on the physical behavior of the products (block dissolving behavior, product life length etc.), the specific enzymes or enzyme blends included in the products, and the effects towards substances in defined environment conditions.

ISO 14034: pCure have developed its verification process to adhere to the requirements in the international standard ISO 14034:2016 - Environmental technology verification (ETV). Before publishing certain reports, the data is verified through this process. The methods used during the established process is developed together with accredited third-party laboratories. Accredited third-party laboratories also perform analysis where the priority is to use laboratories which have documented methods and experiences in analyzing performance in waster and wastewater environments.

Verified Effect: The status tell us the product have verified its effect towards this compound by following the defined verification process. All verified compounds are collected in a dedicated list under the Discover.

In Scope: The status indicates that pCure have a certain interest to develop its effect towards this compound. Compounds with this status have a certain correlation with its negative environmental impact.

Not of (certain) Concern: The status indicates that there are other compounds that are important for pCure to focus its development on. pCure can still verify its effect towards substances with this status, but its focus will be on compounds with more serious environmental impact.

Product count

The product count connected to each substance is based on the available/approved products within EU which includes the products sold nationally within the EU Member States and the EEA Member States. The product count focuses only on naming the medical product brands and have not included the variations of product articles within the same brand. This will result in a suppressed count of the actual number of product articles that pCure have been verified towards. However, the goal is to not exaggerate the product count.

Example: In Sweden, Voltaren is sold as a product brand. Use of Voltaren products results in the release of the API Diclofenac into Nature. According to the Swedish Medical Products Agency (Jan 2020) there are 20 approved or registered medical product articles available within the brand Voltaren.

Instead of naming and counting all 20 product articles, pCure Labs choose to only count the product brand itself, resulting in adding one product/brand to the total count. If the product brand exist in several member states, it is still only counted as one product/brand.

Sources/Databases

When evaluating substances we aim to only use information from publicly available, and credible, national or international sources. Besides public databases we gather national and international lists from government organizations about country specific prioritization of substances which is also used as basis for evaluation. In addition to using information from databases, we also search and review information from scientific papers.

Here are some fantastic databases we use to learn more about pharmaceutical products and residues: DrugBank, PubChem, ECHA, EMA, EU watch-list, Umweltbundesamt, Naturvårdsverket, Läkemedelsverket, FASS, Janusinfo

Web-app development

pCure Labs provides both accurate and independent information on many different active pharmaceutical ingredients and related products. We highlight that inaccuracies most likely will occur and will be, when identified, targeted for improvements.
Information and material is provided for educational purposes only and is not intended for medial advice, diagnosis or treatment.

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