This work reports the elimination of the emerging contaminant cefixime, an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) from Indian based drug effluent. A sequential two step electrocoagulation (EC) and photocatalytic oxidation treatment is proposed to eliminate the API below its minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). This study is prominent due to the treatment of high strength crude drug effluent, with total organic carbon (TOC) of 7395 mg/l, in order to reduce the organic load with complete elimination of pre-existing microbial population. Treatment processes were conducted in batch reactors, in which, EC was carried out by two electrodes viz. Aluminum and Iron. On optimization, at 10 V and 24 V for aluminum and iron electrode, TOC was found to reduce by 14% and 22% respectively. By Fenton's reaction with iron electrode, 41% TOC removal was observed, with reduction of cefixime to 0.01 mg/l. On step two EC with H2O2, a further 2% TOC removal facilitated in reduction of cefixime to 0.001 mg/l, determined by HPLC-MS (High Performance Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry). The sequential EC treated-diluted effluent, subjected to TiO2 and H2O2 assisted photocatalytic oxidation by natural sunlight and UV source, separately, resulted in further TOC reduction of 30% and 33% respectively. EC treatment effectively reduced the API below MIC (6 mg/l), determined by antimicrobial activity and EC-Fenton's reaction allowed elimination of pre-existing bacteria in effluent, below the lower limit of detection (LOD) i.e., 0.5 colony forming units (CFU)/ml. Thus, this work highlights the significance of non-biological treatments of drug effluents to prevent microbial drug resistance in environment. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd