HK inno.N's K-CAB Becomes the World's First Oral Finished Drug Product to Obtain Global EPD
HK inno.N's K-CAB Becomes the World's First Oral Finished Drug Product to Obtain Global EPD
- First oral finished drug product registered on the international EPD-Global platform
- Delivering verified environmental data to global customers and overseas buyers
HK inno.N announced on the 7th of September (Monday) that ‘K-CAB Tablet 50mg (tegoprazan)’, its gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) treatment, has become the world's first oral finished drug product to receive an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD).
HK inno.N received the EPD certificate on Wednesday, 2nd of September (local time), at an award ceremony in Oslo, Norway, jointly hosted by EPD-Global and the Institute of Global Sustainability Certification (IGSC).
An EPD quantifies a product's environmental impact across its full life cycle — from raw material sourcing through manufacturing and distribution — under international standards, with results made public after independent verification. As it provides an objective assessment of a product’s environmental performance, an EPD is often referred to as the product’s “environmental ID.”
K-CAB's EPD was registered in June on EPD-Global, an international EPD platform, following an independent verification by IGSC under ISO 14025. HK inno.N conducted the underlying life cycle assessment (LCA) in line with ISO 14040 and ISO 14044. The assessment covered every stage from active pharmaceutical ingredient manufacture through finished-drug production, packaging and distribution; patient use and end-of-life disposal fell outside its scope.
The pharmaceutical and biotech sector has long struggled to implement EPDs, held back by the absence of authorized environmental accounting guidelines tailored to pharmaceutical products. That gap closed in November 2025, when the British Standards Institution (BSI) published PAS 2090:2025, the international Product Category Rules (PCR) for pharmaceutical environmental assessment. HK inno.N secured K-CAB's EPD on this new standard.
The EPD certification positions HK inno.N to supply global customers and buyers in overseas markets — including Latin America and Asia — with verified, product-level environmental data. As Scope 3 supply-chain emissions accounting and environmental due-diligence requirements tighten, K-CAB's third-party-verified EPD gives customers a credible, documented basis for meeting their ESG obligations.
"Securing K-CAB's EPD so soon after the establishment of pharmaceutical LCA standards serves as a meaningful ESG milestone for the pharmaceutical and biotech industry in Korea," an HK inno.N official said. "We plan to extend environmental assessment to our other key products and continue strengthening environmental data management across our full portfolio."
K-CAB is a potassium-competitive acid blocker (P-CAB) for GERD, developed in-house by HK inno.N. The drug continues to expand its competitive footprint both at home and abroad: it is directly marketed in 20 countries including Korea, and has entered further 55 overseas markets through technology licensing and finished-drug exports, where its efficacy and excellence continue to be recognized. (END)
Reference Information
▶ Life Cycle Assessment (LCA):
A methodology for evaluating a product's environmental impact across its full life cycle.
▶ ISO 14025:
Prescribes the principles and procedures for Type III environmental declarations.
▶ ISO 14040/14044:
ISO 14040 sets the principles and framework for LCA; ISO 14044 provides the requirements and guidelines for implementing LCA.
▶ PCR (Product Category Rules):
Standardized sets of rules and guidelines for calculating and reporting environmental data across products in the same category, ensuring consistent methodology and fair comparability
▶ PAS 2090:2025 (Publicly Available Specification):
Standardized guidelines for measuring and evaluating the environmental impact of pharmaceutical products across their life cycle.