The Production Of New Crown Vaccine Is Facing Global Shortage Of Vaccine Bottles. China'S Annual Output Can Reach 8 Billion.

The new crown vaccine is developing globally, and the market demand for small vaccine bottles is rising.

With the untiring efforts of governments and scientists all over the world, the dawn of vaccine has been shown, but there is a serious shortage of glass bottles for vaccine injection.

It has been reported that there are only 200 million left over in the current global vaccine bottle, which means that even if the new crown vaccine is successfully developed, billions of people will be unable to get vaccinations around the world. In addition to the supply of new crown vaccines, other key vaccines are needed for vaccine bottles, which will also put more pressure on the global vaccine bottle supply chain.

In response, China's Vaccine Industry Association gave an authoritative response. It has clearly indicated that the annual output of vaccine bottles in China can reach at least 8 billion or more, which fully meets the production demand of the new crown vaccine.

Vaccine production or shortage of glass bottles

The global shortage of vaccine bottles has been going on for months.

Vijay Shamant, director of vaccine manufacturing at Merck group, one of the four largest vaccine manufacturers in the world, said in an interview: "the production task is difficult to solve. I can't sleep at night thinking about it. "

The alarm has long been heard, and there is no solution.

Experts in the world warned early about the shortage of vaccine bottles, but there is no solution yet. At the end of April, Bill Gate, who fully supported the development of the new crown vaccine, reminded the vaccine research and development: "even the vaccine bottles and filling procedures do not have enough reserves all over the world."

The new crown is undoubtedly the most urgent public health problem in the world, but the supply of other key vaccines such as influenza, typhoid fever and meningitis is also guaranteed.

"While the epidemic occupies the resources of vaccine bottles, the demand for other vaccines is still enormous. Every year, hundreds of millions of doses of flu vaccine are needed and hundreds of millions of other vaccines are needed. Although the incidence of influenza is relatively low this year because of the strict prevention and control of epidemic situation, with the advent of normalization of epidemic prevention, the production of other vaccines will continue to expand and the demand for vaccine bottles will be further increased. Before that, insiders told the economic news reporters in twenty-first Century.

Cardinal Health, the US vaccine bottle maker, also said the epidemic had caused supply chain problems such as "delayed replenishment of vaccine bottles".

According to the report released by Pacific medicine in May 10th, if the global penetration rate of the new crown vaccine reaches 20%-70% when 1-3 doses are injected per person, the corresponding vaccine bottle market space is 5-50 billion. If the new crown vaccine reaches a penetration rate of 70% and 3 doses per person, the global demand for new crown vaccine will reach 15 billion 947 million.

The vaccine bottle is a container made of special glass, usually containing 2ml to 100ml liquid. Because most medicines require cold chain distribution, vaccine bottles must be low temperature resistant and able to withstand wear and tear caused by worldwide transportation. Therefore, the production of vaccine bottles requires special technology, and the production takes time from several days to several weeks. The process involves melting raw materials, melting the raw materials into slender tubular products, forming bottles and so on.

Globally, almost all biopharmaceutical companies involved in the development of the new crown vaccine are lining up to buy vaccine bottles.

Public information shows that only one Johnson company has purchased 250 million vaccine bottles. Schott, one of the world's largest medical glass manufacturers, has received orders for 1 billion vaccine bottles, which is two times its production capacity this year, and the company's production capacity has reached its limit.

The Pacific Medicine report also predicts that the new crown vaccine bottle will be mainly based on the borosilicate tube, assuming that the average price is 0.3 yuan / branch. According to the penetration rate of 20%, each person will be vaccinated 1 times, and the market space will reach at least 456 million yuan. The market is huge, and the pharmaceutical packaging market is becoming more and more popular.

According to Reportilinker's report, the global pharmaceutical glass market is expected to reach US $22 billion 50 million in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.4%. In the domestic pharmaceutical packaging market, according to the data of state securities, the market scale of pharmaceutical packaging industry in China in 2018 was 106 billion 800 million yuan, an increase of 10.6% over 2017. The market size of pharmaceutical glass in 2018 was 21 billion 940 million yuan, accounting for about 20%.

There is no shortage of vaccine bottles in China.

In May 17th, the Chinese vaccine industry association responded that, based on the observation and industry data of China's vaccine bottle industry, the annual output of vaccine bottles in China can reach at least 8 billion or more, which can fully meet the production demand of the new crown vaccine.

And once the new crown vaccine is successfully developed, our vaccine bottle manufacturers can rapidly release their production capacity, and meet the market demand in a continuous and orderly manner according to the form and specifications of the packaged products.

The selection and quality of vaccine bottles are related to the safety and efficacy of vaccines. From the point of view of material selection, more than 70% of the mainstream injection materials in the world are borosilicate glass, which is mainly due to the higher cost and technical difficulty of borosilicate glass than that of high borosilicate glass, low borosilicate glass and soda lime glass, and at the same time, it has certain thermal stability and chemical stability.

But in China, the annual demand for borosilicate glass is about 50 thousand tons, and the self production rate is only 7% to 8%. "China Pharmaceutical glass packaging depth research and investment strategy report (2019 Edition)" shows that China's medical glass products are mainly based on low borosilicate glass and soda lime glass.

The main reason is that the cost of borosilicate glass is high for pharmaceutical glass manufacturers in China. Secondly, the stability of the borosilicate tube is difficult to control.

In order to improve the quality of pharmaceutical packaging materials in China, in 2019, the State Administration of Drug Administration issued a request that the use of packaging materials for domestic generic drugs should not be lower than those of European and American countries. Therefore, some people in the industry believe that the supply and demand crisis of the vaccine bottle may also be an opportunity to promote the upgrading of domestic pharmaceutical packaging materials.

With the improvement of domestic drug safety supervision standards, the technology, cost and scale advantages of pharmaceutical glass leading enterprises are beginning to appear. Taking Shandong pharmaceutical glass as an example, according to the earnings report of Shandong medicine and glass, after its downturn in 2011 and 2012, its operating income increased from 2014 to 2018, and its operating income reached 2 billion 585 million yuan in 2018, an increase of 10.91% over the same period last year. Net profit reached 358 million yuan, an increase of 36.33% over the same period last year.

Peng Shou, chairman of the National People's Congress, academician of the Chinese Academy of engineering and chairman of Kasen science and Technology Group Co., Ltd., said in an interview that Kasen group had certain anticipation of the shortage of vaccine bottles, and has built the first domestic borosilicate pharmaceutical glass production line with annual intellectual property rights of 5000 tons per year. In August 30th, when its new production line was put into operation, the annual production capacity of borosilicate glass tube in 5 could reach 10 thousand tons, providing 500 million annual packaging bottles for vaccines.

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