PFAROS: Driving Sustainable Innovation to Minimise PFAS in European Healthcare

[Ghent, Belgium, 1 September 2026] — A new European research and innovation initiative, PFAROS, has launched to strengthen collaboration among healthcare system stakeholders and to support integrated solutions to address per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) concerns in the pharmaceutical and medical technology sectors. Funded under the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU), PFAROS is aligned with European Union public health, environmental, and industrial policy objectives.

PFAROS brings together a consortium of 89 European and international partners from industry, academia, healthcare, regulatory bodies, and civil society. By combining complementary expertise across disciplines and sectors, the project seeks to research and assess opportunities to reduce PFAS emissions across the life cycle of medical products and applications, including waste management, while promoting effectiveness, quality, patient safety, and continuity in essential healthcare product life cycles.

PFAROS’ mission is to research pathways to identify and reduce PFAS use in medical and pharmaceutical applications where feasible through a multidisciplinary and solutions-oriented approach. The project will map PFAS uses across the global healthcare supply chain and explore options to identify, develop and validate PFAS alternatives. These activities will be supported by data science, including development of a new AI-powered data tool to enable informed substitution choices. This data tool will be designed to help empower evidence-based regulatory and policy decisions, supporting authorities as well as industry in navigating the transition away from PFAS where feasible.

PFAROS will assess and work to develop PFAS alternatives while prioritizing product effectiveness, quality and patient safety for current applications in polymers, coatings, processing aids, and components used in analytical synthesis. In parallel, PFAROS will improve understanding of potential exposure routes and the safety profile of alternative materials to enable the selection of environmentally safer materials and solutions, where feasible.

Sustainability is a core principle of the project. PFAROS will use a Safe and Sustainable by Design framework, addressing life-cycle management, circularity, patient safety for the intended alternative uses, and stakeholder acceptance. Waste management, recovery and remediation strategies for both solid and liquid waste streams will be assessed for efficiency, selectivity, energy use, and the formation of by-products, helping to avoid regrettable substitutions and ensure proposed solutions are robust and environmentally sound.

Beyond technology development, PFAROS will actively support policy frameworks and regulatory dialogue, including the development of a European roadmap to reduce PFAS emissions from healthcare applications where technically and clinically feasible. By working closely with stakeholders across the entire supply chain, the project will facilitate industry uptake of its tools, knowledge, and validated solutions. Broad stakeholder engagement and the integration of social sciences help ensuring that this transition is not only technically sound, but also transparent, and societally informed.

By accelerating the review of assessed alternatives, decision-support tools, and integrated assessment frameworks, the project supports Europe’s ambition of being the global leader in sustainable chemicals policy and healthcare innovation while strengthening the resilience of its healthcare system.

Project updates and milestones will be shared via the PFAROS LinkedIn page.

Disclaimer

This project is supported by the Innovative Health Initiative Joint Undertaking (IHI JU) under grant agreement No 101251281. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme and COCIR, EFPIA, Europa Bío, MedTech Europe, and Vaccines Europe.

Funded by the European Union, the private members, and those contributing partners of the IHI JU.

Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the aforementioned parties. Neither of the aforementioned parties can be held responsible for them.