About MCF Formulary and MCF Classifier

Introduction

The Medicine Carbon Footprint (MCF) Formulary, developed by YewMaker, is a free, innovative, educational tool designed for healthcare professionals, medicine manufacturers and suppliers, researchers, and policymakers.

MCF Formulary is designed to provide an accessible, user-friendly interface to explore the per dose ‘cradle-to-gate’ carbon footprints of thousands of medicines, categorised into one of four MCF Ratings - LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH, and VERY HIGH.

MCF Formulary is a component of the broader MCF Classifier suite of applications to measure, classify, benchmark, and visualise carbon emissions of medicines. Other components include MCF Reports and MCF Data.

Please visit the MCF Classifier webpage for more details.

Creators and Contributors

MCF Classifier and Formulary were co-created by physician-scientist Nazneen Rahman and data scientist Haroon Taylor, from YewMaker, supported by contributors, collaborators, advisors, and funders. In particular, the Sustainable Medicines Partnership and the Greener NHS have provided valuable insights, inspiration, and feedback.

MCF Formulary development was supported by funding from SBRI Healthcare Programme, an Accelerated Access Collaborative initiative, championed by the Health Innovation Network. YewMaker funds the maintenance and ongoing development of MCF Formulary.

The Mission

At YewMaker we are dedicated to creating science-based solutions to make healthcare more sustainable: better for people, planet, and prosperity. The inception of MCF Classifier was recognition that healthcare contributes around 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with medicines making a large contribution.

The lack of practical, standardised, product-level medicine carbon footprint data has limited our understanding, prioritisation, and action on medicine carbon emissions. YewMaker created MCF Classifier to change this.

MCF Classifier is an AI-driven technology suite that integrates industry-standard metrics, algorithms, data science and carbon-accounting standards, to deliver practical data and solutions to optimise the carbon emissions of medicines and catalyse awareness, research, action, and impact.

MCF Formulary is our free, educational online platform that enables people to start exploring medicine carbon footprint ratings for thousands of medicines.

Get Started and Learn More

We invite you to explore MCF Formulary - our Quick Start Video will tell you all you need to know to get started.

For more information on the methodology, applications, and the services we provide, please see the FAQ page, read the Taylor et al. 2024 paper, and visit the MCF Classifier page on our website.

Access Medicine Carbon Footprint Data

MCF Formulary is a small snapshot of the information and services available within MCF Classifier. The most popular requests we receive are for:

• MCF Data Extracts: We provide carbon emission values for specific medicines, to allow you to estimate the carbon impacts of activities such as clinical trials, research, over-prescription, or carbon reduction interventions. Please complete the MCF Data Access Form if this is of interest.
• MCF Product Reports: We provide third-party assured, cradle-to-gate product carbon footprint reports compliant with GHG Protocol, ISO 14067 and PAS 2050 standards. Please contact us for more information or download a sample report.
• MCF Comparison Reports: We provide third-party assured reports detailing, contextualised, standardised, comparative analyses of medicine emissions for select products, for example to account for different clinical scenarios, dosing regimens or manufacturers. Please contact us for more information.
• MCF Emission Analyses: We can perform third-party assured, compliant, product-level carbon emissions analyses across our full dataset. This is ideal for supporting Scope 3 reporting, evaluating the carbon impact of optimisation studies and informing research. Please contact us for more information.

Please note: We do not supply data for individual therapeutic decision-making. MCF Classifier is not a clinical tool and is not approved for clinical use.

Please see the MCF Classifier webpage for more information.