Why are there not enough vaccine glass bottles? With a population of nearly 8 billion, there are only 200 million bottles left. Because vaccine bottles are made of special glass, they must be resistant to low temperature and wear. Besides the COVID-19 vaccine, we must also ensure the continuous supply of other key vaccines. This is why vaccine glass bottles are not enough.

Why are there not enough vaccine glass bottles? 1

In other words, even if the vaccine is successfully developed in COVID-19, it is still difficult for billions of people to obtain it.

At present, more than 65,438+000 teams around the world are competing to develop COVID-19 vaccines, some of which have entered human trials.

Sara gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, said that his team is working hard to complete vaccine research and development in September.

However, if it is difficult for manufacturers to provide enough glass bottles to repackage the vaccine, even if the vaccine is successfully developed, COVID-19 may continue to spread around the world due to the shortage of glass bottles.

It is reported that vaccine bottles are made of special glass and usually contain 2 ml to 100 ml of liquid, with an average height of 45 mm and a width of11.5 mm.

In addition, vaccine bottles must be able to withstand the wear and tear caused by low temperature and global transportation.

On April 30th, Sir john bell, a professor of medicine at Oxford University, said that there were only 200 million medicine bottles left in the world, which were occupied by people who could foresee the number of vaccines.

Sir Jeremy Farrah and Bill Gates, directors of Wellcome Foundation, UK, said that with the emergence and mass production of vaccines in COVID-19, it won't be long before there are not enough vaccine bottles.

Dr Rick Brett, an American vaccine scientist, said that it may take two years to produce glass bottles that meet the needs of American vaccines.

The US Food and Drug Administration also stated that vaccine manufacturers are obliged to report any shortage of materials, but glass bottles are not on the report list.

Whether the vaccine is packed in multi-dose bottles (2 to 20 doses can be packed) will affect the vial inventory, and the dose size will also affect the vial demand.

Almond, former vice president of Sanofi, a medical and health enterprise, said that it is more likely to need a double dose vaccine, that is, two injections of a smaller dose vaccine, which means more glass bottles will be needed.

At present, it is not clear about the effect of single-dose or double-dose vaccine on human immune COVID-19.

Although the most urgent task at present is to fight the COVID-19 epidemic, it is also necessary to maintain the continuous supply of other key vaccines (such as meningitis and influenza), which requires more glass bottles.

At present, there are only 200 million bottles in the world, which may require more attention from all countries to jointly solve the shortage of vaccine glass bottles.

Why are there not enough vaccine glass bottles? 2

To fight against COVID-19, the importance of vaccines is self-evident. With the beginning of vaccination in all parts of the country, the original saying that the glass bottles used to hold vaccines are not enough has also been broken. That's because the internationally recognized best medical bottles for vaccines are products produced by companies such as Short in Germany and Corning in the United States. In particular, the medium borosilicate glass produced by Short Company in Germany occupies nearly 70% of the global market share. If it is only a company, it will certainly encounter various problems such as insufficient labor ability.

In the global borosilicate glass market, China enterprises only account for about 10%, and the bulk is divided by several foreign giants. Due to the high technical threshold, complicated production process and relatively high equipment maintenance cost, it is not an easy task to expand production capacity.

Short has production bases in Suzhou, Jiangsu and Lishui, Zhejiang. Otto Short, the founder of Short, invented special glass 136 years ago. Different from ordinary glass, special glass has the technical characteristics of performing special tasks. Among them, 5.0 medium borosilicate medical glass has been the gold standard of medical packaging industry for more than a century. Because it has three main characteristics:

1). High temperature resistance: It has extremely high temperature resistance at temperatures as high as 500℃ and below the freezing point of -72℃. It can safely store drugs and prevent the pollution of harmful substances.

2) High stability: With the passage of time, drugs and packaging materials may react chemically, thus affecting the efficacy of drugs. The classical formula design of Schott borosilicate glass can improve the stability of the glass and effectively prevent this from happening.

3) High protection: Medium borosilicate medical glass can effectively prevent the pollution of harmful substances.

In the domestic market, China's medical glass is mainly composed of low borosilicate glass (borosilicate glass can be divided into medium borosilicate glass and low borosilicate glass, which is more resistant to instantaneous temperature difference and not easy to break) and soda-lime glass, and it is being transformed into medium borosilicate glass in recent years. It is gratifying that in recent years, many China enterprises have made technological breakthroughs in the manufacture of borosilicate glass and established their production capacity. According to the recent statistics of China Vaccine Industry Association, the annual output of vaccine bottles in China can reach more than 8 billion. As long as COVID-19 has successfully developed vaccines and determined the form and specifications of packaging products, vaccine bottle manufacturers can quickly release their production capacity to meet the demand of vaccine production in COVID-19.

In recent years, many domestic enterprises are making great efforts to manufacture borosilicate glass, and have made certain achievements. For example, Sinoma Kaisheng Junheng adopts oxygen-free electromagnetic flux technology, and the No.2 kiln realizes stable mass production; Yao Bo made a breakthrough in molding technology; A medium borosilicate glass melting furnace was built in Zheng Chuan, Chongqing. June 5438 +2020 10, Dai Jichu, deputy chief engineer of Kaisheng Junheng, a medical glass product enterprise under China Building Materials Group, and his company and partners have achieved phased results after years of technical research. The kiln for preparing medium borosilicate glass tubes has been put into production, and the current daily output is 15-20 tons. In 20021year, the enterprise plans to ignite two kilns at the same time in Handan, Hebei Province, with an annual output of about 1.2 million tons.

There are still many domestic enterprises making efforts in the field of borosilicate glass and infiltrating into the whole industrial chain. According to the data, there are currently 23 medium-boron-silicon-related enterprises in China, whose business scope includes "medium-boron-silicon and neutral-boron-silicon", and their status is in business, surviving, moving in and moving out, and about half of them were established within three years. The business scope includes "drugs [packaging materials and containers, special equipment for glass production, glass packaging containers] and more than 2,500 enterprises that are in operation, surviving, moving in and moving out.

Powerful international pharmaceutical glass enterprises have also set up factories in China, becoming a part of the domestic industrial chain. In addition to Short's newly-built borosilicate glass tube factory in Zhejiang, Corning Medical Technology Company of the United States has also started to build a factory in Bengbu, Anhui. It is estimated that it will be put into production in the third quarter of 20021with an annual output of 20,000 tons of glass tubes, and the products will be supplied to the global medical packaging market.