Drug recycling

[1] However, in a regulated process, monitored by specialized pharmacies or medical organization, these uncertainties can be overcome.

For example, monitoring the storage conditions, including temperature, light, humidity and agitation of medication, can contribute to regulation of the quality of recycled drugs.

[4] Such packaging requires an initial investment, but this can be compensated with potential cost savings obtained by a drug recycling program.

[12] Alternatively, drug recycling programs could be set as routine clinical practice with the aim of reducing the economic and environmental burden of medication waste.

[16] One can assume that implementing drug recycling as routine clinical practice is only attractive from an economical perspective, if the savings exceed the operational pharmacy costs.

In the Netherlands, redispensing of unused oral anticancer drugs is currently tested in routine clinical practice to determined cost-savings of a quality-controlled process.