EURO 2024 Copenhagen
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940. Circular economy application in pharmaceutical supply chains in the UK: a holistic evolutionary game approach

Invited abstract in session WD-24: Sustainable supply chains, stream Circular Economy, Remanufacturing and Recycling .

Wednesday, 14:30-16:00
Room: 83 (building: 116)

Authors (first author is the speaker)

1. Nazanin Nami
AMBS, University of Manchester
2. Grigory Pishchulov
Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester
3. Joao Quariguasi Frota Net
AMBS, University of Manchester

Abstract

The environmental hazards of improperly managed waste have gained universal recognition among scholars and stakeholders. These hazards are especially critical in the pharmaceutical sector as leftover medications contain active chemicals that threaten the environment and human health. Nonetheless, implementation of adequate measures to ensure proper collection and treatment of pharmaceutical leftovers remains insufficient, and tons of unwanted medications are discarded in landfills and wastewater annually. This is due to lack of coordination between the parties and poor incentive systems. To address this issue, we study coordination in pharmaceutical reverse supply chains and government incentive strategies. We employ the evolutionary game methodology to evaluate strategic behaviour of pharmacies, a recycler, and the government under four incentive plans. We compare the incentive plans based on return volume, participation rate, cost, and implementation time, to recommend the most effective plan. We conduct a numerical study to gain insights into the performance of the incentive plans in different conditions. The results reveal that a plan that provides proper incentives to pharmacies for targeting both, reward- and awareness-driven customers, coupled with contract-based coordination, outperforms other plans, and does not necessarily require a budget allocation. Our study is based on the UK’s National Health System but it is generalisable to other countries as well.

Keywords

Status: accepted

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