Emulating the positive developments of consumer products manufacturing industries, the pharmaceutical manufacturing (PM) industry is also leaning towards sustainable manufacturing. Expectations are on the rise to lower the undesirable impacts on the earth ecosystem caused by the manufacturing companies via new circular economy implementation. The current sustainable practices of PM industry focus largely on waste mitigation, rather than closing the resource loops through adopting the concept of circular economy. Academic studies are mainly concentrated on chemistry research in PM industry, while a systematic framework to guide the implementation of circular economy concept is missing.

In this paper, we use the 9R framework to illustrate the latest circular economy model, and introduce an adapted 9R (PM9R) framework that is catered for the PM industry. We attempt to (a) use the PM9R framework to review academic research in sustainable PM; (b) conduct literature mining and critical analysis according to “short loop”, “medium loop” and “long loop” systems; (c) highlight the risks that hinder the progression of academic solutions to industry practices and the impact of PM9R application; and (d) illustrate new circular economy avenues for future research in sustainable PM. The finding of this paper show that “short loop” is the prime research focus, emphasizing in the area of alternative chemistry in new PM production design and planning. However, the mismatch between research focus and the practical needs in existing PM processes is the risk that hinder the transition of academic solutions to industry practices. Pharmaceutical companies, academia, and regulatory authorities should work closely in an ecosystem to mitigate the barriers in upscaling study, regulations and intellectual property ownership issues.

模仿消费品制造业的积极发展，制药业（PM）也趋向于可持续制造。人们越来越希望降低制造公司通过实施新的循环经济对地球生态系统造成的不良影响。粉末冶金行业当前的可持续实践主要集中在减少废物上，而不是通过采用循环经济的概念来关闭资源循环。学术研究主要集中于粉末冶金行业的化学研究，而缺少指导实施循环经济概念的系统框架。

在本文中，我们使用9R框架来说明最新的循环经济模型，并介绍一种适合PM行业的适应性9R（PM9R）框架。我们试图（a）使用PM9R框架来审查可持续性PM中的学术研究；（b）根据“短循环”，“中循环”和“长循环”系统进行文献挖掘和批判分析；（c）强调阻碍学术解决方案发展为行业实践的风险以及PM9R应用的影响；（d）说明了可持续PM未来研究的新循环经济途径。本文的发现表明，“短循环”是主要的研究重点，在新的PM生产设计和规划中强调了替代化学领域。然而，现有PM过程中研究重点与实际需求之间的不匹配是阻碍学术解决方案向行业实践过渡的风险。制药公司，学术界和监管机构应在生态系统中密切合作，以减轻扩大研究，法规和知识产权所有权问题的障碍。