With the growing expectations that the first Covid-19 vaccine doses will be administered in a matter of weeks, German glassmaker Schott is quietly doing what it has been for months, making out the vials that will hold the vaccine. The 130-year-old Schott company, whose founder Otto Schott invented the high-quality borosilicate glass favoured by the pharma industry, is now working round the clock to meet unprecedented demand to pack Covid 19 vaccines.
Already millions of the little bottles has been delivered to the vaccine makers involved in Covid-19 trials, and is already filling them so they can be shipped out the minute once approved by the regulatory. The 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". Schott is the big supplier as it is supplying vials for three-quarters of the more than 100 coronavirus vaccine trials worldwide.
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 flowing in the company, new manufacturing equipment was already up and running. "That puts us in a very good position to ramp up production quickly," Rettig said. Though the 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".
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