HK inno.N's Kepacab becomes world's first oral finished drug to earn global EPD certification

HK inno.N's gastroesophageal reflux disease drug Kepacab 50mg has become the world's first oral finished pharmaceutical product to receive an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) certification.

The company said Monday that it received the EPD certificate for Kepacab 50mg at a ceremony jointly held by EPD-Global and the International Green Sustainability Council (IGSC) in Oslo, Norway, on Wednesday (local time).

An EPD quantifies a product's environmental impact across its entire life cycle — from raw material production through manufacturing and retail — in accordance with international standards, with the results independently verified and publicly disclosed. The certification is widely regarded as a product's environmental identity card.

Kepacab 50mg's EPD was officially registered on EPD-Global, the internationally recognized platform, in June. Earlier, the IGSC completed an independent verification against ISO 14025 standards, while HK inno.N finished a life cycle assessment (LCA) conducted in accordance with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. The assessment covers the manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients through the production, packaging and retail of the finished drug, excluding post-consumption and disposal stages.

The pharmaceutical and biotech industry had long struggled to obtain EPDs due to the absence of an officially recognized environmental assessment guideline specific to drugs. That changed in November 2025, when the British Standards Institution (BSI) published PAS 2090:2025, an international standard product category rules (PCR) framework for evaluating the environmental performance of pharmaceuticals. HK inno.N moved quickly to apply the new standard and secured the certification.

The certification gives HK inno.N reliable data to meet increasingly stringent global requirements for Scope 3 carbon emissions accounting and environmental due diligence across the supply chain. The company said it is particularly well-positioned to satisfy ESG demands from buyers in Asia and Latin America, strengthening its export competitiveness.

"Securing the EPD for Kepacab 50mg so soon after the establishment of a pharmaceutical life cycle assessment standard is a meaningful ESG achievement for Korea's pharmaceutical and biotech industry," an HK inno.N official said. "We will expand the assessment to cover our key product lines and build a more advanced environmental information management system across our entire portfolio."