It has been reported recently that even if covid-19 vaccine does come on the market in the near future, it will not be possible to produce one vaccine per person, even if there is enough of it, because there is a serious shortage of glass vials needed for global storage of the vaccine.On May 17, the China vaccine industry association issued a statement in response, saying that China’s annual production of vaccine bottles can reach at least 8 billion, which can meet the needs of covid-19 vaccine production, and the “bottleneck” can be broken.
Official website of China vaccine industry association
According to the China vaccine industry association, based on the vaccine bottle industry observation and industry data, after communication and demonstration with several benchmark enterprises, it is believed that China has the industrial basis for the production of high-quality vaccine bottles. According to incomplete statistics, the annual output can reach at least 8 billion bottles, which can meet the production needs of covid-19 vaccine.
According to the introduction, the special requirements of the vaccine for the selection of borosilicate glass material, mainly controlled injection bottles (commonly known as syringes) and prefilled sealed syringes.Currently, there are more than 60 packaging manufacturers in China, among which ningbo zhengli and shuangfeng greensheim are the major manufacturers of vaccine injection bottles, and shandong weigao, ningbo zhengli, shandong pharmaceutical, BD and other manufacturers of pre-filling and sealing syringes.
According to the China vaccine industry association, based on the production capacity of the above-mentioned enterprises, according to preliminary estimates, the annual output of vaccine bottles in China could reach at least 8 billion.According to the global progress of covid-19 vaccine development, vaccine bottle manufacturers currently have sufficient preparation time and production capacity base. As long as covid-19 vaccine development is successful and the form and specifications of the packaged products are determined, vaccine bottle manufacturers can quickly release production capacity and meet the market demand in an orderly manner.
It is worth noting that the selection of vaccine packaging materials is a very rigorous process.From the audit of qualified packaging material suppliers to the study of compatibility between drugs and packaging material, it involves the investigation of the comprehensive capacity of packaging material manufacturers.The stability test of the selected packaging material of the vaccine requires a long period of validation, which usually takes about 2-3 years, depending on the expiry date of the drug.Such high standards ensure the safety and reliability of the vaccine packaging materials.
At present, a number of vaccine bottle manufacturing enterprises in China have contacted with the vaccine r&d units of xunguan to understand the production requirements of vaccine bottles in advance, reserve the raw materials, and arrange production according to the vaccine r&d schedule to ensure the production needs of vaccines.