{"id":120000,"date":"2020-11-25T12:20:01","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T09:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/german-vials-in-spotlight-as-covid-19-vaccine-nears\/"},"modified":"2020-11-25T12:20:01","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T09:20:01","slug":"german-vials-in-spotlight-as-covid-19-vaccine-nears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/german-vials-in-spotlight-as-covid-19-vaccine-nears\/","title":{"rendered":"#German vials in spotlight as COVID-19 vaccine nears"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#German vials in spotlight as COVID-19 vaccine nears<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"Schott
\n Schott says it will produce enough glass vials to hold up to two billion doses of coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2021
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As expectations grow that the first COVID-19 jabs will be administered in a matter of weeks, German glassmaker Schott is quietly doing what it has been for months: churning out vials that will hold the vaccine.\n <\/p>\n

The 130-year-old company, whose founder Otto Schott invented the high-quality borosilicate glass favoured by the pharma industry, has been working round the clock to meet unprecedented demand.<\/p>\n

Already it has delivered millions of the little bottles to vaccine makers involved in COVID-19 trials, who have already started filling them so they can be shipped out the minute regulators give the okay.<\/p>\n

While non-disclosure agreements prevent Schott from detailing its customer list, head of communications Christina Rettig said they include “the ones you hear about in the media<\/a>”.<\/p>\n

In fact, Schott is supplying vials for three-quarters of the more than 100 coronavirus vaccine trials worldwide.<\/p>\n

Closest to the finish line are US firm Moderna and a joint effort by US giant Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech\u2014which coincidentally has its headquarters in the same western German city of Mainz as Schott.<\/p>\n

Large-scale data has shown both vaccines to be around 95 percent effective and US and European authorities have signalled that inoculations could start in mid-December.<\/p>\n

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\"COVID-19
\n COVID-19 vaccines in development being tracked by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
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With the world on the brink of a mass immunisation effort to end the pandemic, Schott and its competitors say they are ready to rise to the challenge.<\/p>\n

The company issued a statement in July with Germany’s Gerresheimer and Italy’s Stevanato Group, fellow leaders in pharmaceutical packaging, to say they were coordinating closely with pharma customers and could ensure sufficient supply.<\/p>\n

Schott alone aims to produce enough vials to store two billion doses of a coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2021, Rettig told AFP at the company’s offices in Mainz.<\/p>\n

Ramping up<\/b><\/p>\n

In a lucky break, the industry was already seeing rising demand from China and other countries for top-level Type 1 borosilicate glass products, meaning Schott and other major players were building up capacity well before the pandemic struck.<\/p>\n

Schott launched a $1.0-billion (840-million-euro) investment programme in 2019 to expand its pharmaceutical business. By the time the COVID-19 vial requests started pouring in, new manufacturing equipment was already up and running.
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“That puts us in a very good position to ramp up production quickly,” Rettig said.<\/p>\n

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\"Schott
\n Schott was already ramping up its production capacity before the coronavirus emerged in China
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And because regulators have long been familiar with the tried-and-tested vials, which have to meet strict international norms, they won’t hold up the vaccine authorisation process.<\/p>\n

To keep production moving, workers are churning out vials 24 hours a day, a typical pace in the sector, and outsiders are banned from the premises to minimise the risk of coronavirus infections.<\/p>\n

Schott itself had an early encounter with the virus at its Mitterteich plant in Bavaria, where it manufactures glass tubes that can be turned into vials.<\/p>\n

The town became one of Germany’s first coronavirus hotspots in March after a beer festival, and Rettig said several Schott workers from the Czech Republic ended up “not seeing friends and family for weeks” as borders slammed shut.<\/p>\n

‘Gold standard’<\/b><\/p>\n

Borosilicate glass was invented around 1890 by Otto Schott, a chemist from a family of glassmakers. Together with scientists Ernst Abbe and Carl Zeiss, he set up a lab that would lay the foundation for modern glass technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What makes borosilicate glass special is that it can handle temperatures from -80 to 500 degrees Celsius, which is handy considering the Pfizer\/BioNTech vaccine needs to be stored at a frigid -70 degrees.<\/p>\n

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\"Special
\n Special borosilicate glass can handle the extreme low temperatures needed to store some coronavirus vaccines
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It is also chemically inert, meaning there is no chemical interaction between the container and the liquid inside it, preventing any interference that could potentially harm the vaccine.<\/p>\n

Borosilicate glass is considered “the gold standard” for packaging drugs, Rettig said.<\/p>\n

The Schott company, wholly owned by the Carl Zeiss Foundation, now has over 16,000 employees in more than 30 countries and reported revenues of 2.2 billion euros ($2.6 billion) in 2018-2019.<\/p>\n

Its other products range from specialist cabin lighting in aeroplanes to ceramic cooktops, as well as microscope slides being used in rapid COVID-19 antibody testing, and medical lights that help doctors examine respiratory tracts.<\/p>\n

While vial makers aren’t quite grabbing the headlines as much as vaccine developers, Rettig said Schott employees “are proud to contribute to the fight against the coronavirus”.\n <\/p>\n\n

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Follow the latest news<\/a> on the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2020 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n German vials in spotlight as COVID-19 vaccine nears (2020, November 25)
\n retrieved 25 November 2020
\n from https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2020-11-german-vials-spotlight-covid-vaccine.html<\/p>\n

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\n part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n