China can make vaccines, but cannot make vaccine bottles?

The Chinese vaccine is helping many countries and people around the world fight against the new coronavirus.

As early as January 13, Indonesian President Joko received the Chinese new crown vaccine. The next day, on January 14, Turkish President Erdogan received the Chinese new crown vaccine in a hospital in Ankara.

Now, more than 20 countries around the world are now ordering the Chinese new crown vaccine. Among them, Brazil has ordered 100 million doses of the new crown vaccine.

Currently, the world’s leaders include Vice President Oktay, Seychelles President Ram Karawang, Jordanian Prime Minister Hasavana, Bahrain Crown Prince and Prime Minister Salman and other leaders The Chinese new crown vaccine has been publicly vaccinated.

In China, vaccination work has also begun. Starting on January 22, Beijing will start the second dose of the new crown vaccine for key populations.

According to data previously disclosed by the National Health Commission, the production capacity of domestic vaccines in 2021 can reach 1 billion doses.

Some netizens said that the Chinese vaccine is trustworthy.

However, when domestic vaccines are constantly being praised, there is still a serious problem looming.

Vaccine vials are in a global emergency. In China, borosilicate glass is facing the problem of “stuck necks”.

The Chinese vaccine is very good, but the bottle is foreign

June 2020,25 Germans flew to Zhejiang, China, to help build a factory here. The main product of the factory is glass.

This is not ordinary glass, but a vaccine bottle that the whole world urgently needs.

As early as last April, Oxford University Professor of Medicine John Bell stated that there are only 200 million medicine bottles left in the world.

The implication is that the global shortage of vaccine glass vials is breaking out. Microsoft founder Bill Gates also reminded that "even vaccine bottles and potting equipment do not have enough reserves in the world."

This crisis has not been seen in China.

In July 2020, Zhang Wenhong, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases, Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, once publicly stated that "the production of glass bottles for vaccines is more difficult than vaccines" because "glass bottles must first have enough glass. , There must be enough manufacturers."

Although China is already at the forefront of the vaccine field, the vaccine bottle has become another barrier.

Currently, the new crown vaccine bottles are mainly medium borosilicate glass bottles, while the domestic medicinal glass is mainly soda lime glass or low borosilicate glass.

In the field of borosilicate glass, China has too little sense of existence.

There was once a story. In 2005, several Chinese pharmaceutical glass packaging companies negotiated with German companies to purchase collectively, and wanted to exchange prices with domestic A large demand for medicinal glass in exchange for a preferential price.

But the other party is very arrogant, the price will not drop, and the payment must be 6 months in advance.

This time the stimulus exposed the shortcomings of Chinese medicinal glass.

Recently, an article pointed out that China has an industrial base for the production of high-quality vaccine vials, with an annual output of at least 8 billion.

However, more than 90% of medicinal glass bottles are still using low borosilicate glass. Therefore, out of these 8 billion vaccine bottles, how many are medium borosilicate glass bottles?

This answer may not make people feel optimistic.

Currently, the global medium borosilicate glass bottle market has long been monopolized by Schott of Germany, Nihon Electric Glass and Corning of the United States. The three companies have a global market share of 90% in 2019.

More than 100 vaccine research institutes have ordered vaccine vials from SCHOTT. This means that 3 out of every 4 new crown vaccine projects in the world use SCHOTT's borosilicate medicinal glass bottles, including Chinese institutions.

No matter how strong China's vaccine production capacity is, it will eventually be necessary to buy foreign vaccine bottles before they can be used.

In order to solve the problem of insufficient glass, China has invited foreign giants to the country.

The Zhejiang factory mentioned above is the Chinese factory of SCHOTT, Germany. Production has been officially put into operation on November 11, and it will also become the main supply base for vaccine packaging raw materials.

If there is a problem with this production line, can the vaccine advantage continue to be maintained?

The answer may not be very optimistic.

The small bottle threatens the big industry

Glass, this seemingly simple, transparent, and intangible thing has now become part of the many trials in this global crisis.

If you think that a glass bottle is only related to the vaccine company, you are wrong. In fact, this small glass bottle is closely related to the health of each of us.

In terms of vaccine containers, at present, mainstream new crown vaccines are loaded in medicinal glass bottles. The quality of medicinal glass affects the effectiveness of the vaccine to a large extent.

In the field of medicinal glass, there is a very important parameter called water resistance.

Water resistance refers to the amount of alkali precipitated per unit mass of glass under certain conditions. The less the amount of alkali precipitated in the glass, the higher the water resistance level and the more stable the material properties, the less it will be with the solvent in the bottle The chemical reaction will make the vaccine in the bottle safer and more reliable.

Glass bottles with low water resistance. Some of the components are precipitated by the contacted drugs, or the glass and drug components migrate between each other, which will cause the injection efficacy to decline and several important reasons for the incurable drugs one. Thus, it directly affects the effectiveness of the vaccine.

The international standard requires that the glass container containing the vaccine must be "a medium borosilicate glass bottle". This is an internationally recognized safe drug packaging material, which not only fully guarantees the safety and stability of drugs, but also prevents the Adverse reactions occur in low-grade packaging and endanger human health.

The vaccine bottle not only affects whether the vaccine company can apply the vaccine in life, but to a certain extent determines whether the vaccine can really work.

A small glass bottle from abroad is not available.It is possible that China's vaccine production capacity will be greatly reduced, and even directly affect the efficiency of vaccine vaccination.

At present, there are more than 50 domestic companies that can produce medium borosilicate glass controlled injections, but the medium borosilicate glass tube as the most important carrier is still imported.

Jinjiao Finance (F-Jinjiao) inquired from the National Medical Products Administration that among the current borosilicate glass tube registration and filing companies, Nipro, NEG, SCHOTT, Gerresheimer and other companies are still the main players. In China, only a few companies such as Shandong Pharmaceutical Glass and Zhengchuan Co., Ltd. can produce it.

Chinese vaccine, it seems that it is not 100% China.

Of course, in the context of the globalization of the industrial chain, it is normal for a part of an entire industry to purchase from the global industrial chain. However, if the missing link in China affects the development of the entire industry, it has to be taken seriously.

The advantage that was given up by oneself

But in fact, Chinese medicinal glass was not originally so backward.

As early as the 1960s, China's pharmaceutical industry has already ushered in a period of rapid development.

In May 1968, He Xiangjian and 23 residents raised 5,000 yuan to set up the "Beijie Office Plastic Production Group". The main products are medicinal glass bottles and plastic caps.

It can be seen that the start of the domestic pharmaceutical glass bottle industry is not too late.

Before He Xiangjian produced medicinal glass bottles, Beijing Glass Instrument Factory had already tried 5.0 neutral borosilicate glass tubes in the 1950s.

At that time,Other countries around the world are also developing high-quality medicinal glass with boron content exceeding 8%, including Corning's 7800, SCHOTT's Folax, and Japan's NEG's BS.

This means that China's borosilicate glass research and development started at least at the same time as the international giants. In the 1980s, Baoji Pharmaceutical Glass introduced a full set of production lines from Corning in the United States and tried to make it domestically.

Although the production capacity at that time may not be very high, it can also be seen that China was moving towards the forefront of medicinal glass more than half a century ago.

However, nearly 70 years later, Chinese medicinal glass is still subject to others.

Why?

Whether it was in the 1960s or 1980s, the Chinese economy was in a relatively preliminary stage. One word can describe the situation of most Chinese industries at that time, that is, "poor ".

Medium borosilicate glass has a high cost, so the price is also high. For the domestic pharmaceutical industry at that time, purchasing medium borosilicate glass also meant increased costs.

The price of medium borosilicate glass tube produced by SCHOTT in Germany is about 27,000 yuan/ton, and the price of domestic low borosilicate glass tube is about 7,000 yuan/ton. The price of the former is about four times that of the latter.

While downstream pharmaceutical companies are within the range of options, they naturally prefer cheaper alternative products, such as low borosilicate glass.

Until now, in the medicinal glass market, medium borosilicate glass is still not the mainstream.

"In-depth research and investment strategy report on Chinese pharmaceutical glass packaging (2019 edition)" shows thatIn 2018, in the domestic pharmaceutical glass market, medium borosilicate glass only accounted for 7%-8%.

Pharmaceutical glass is such an industry, which affects the cost structure of major Chinese pharmaceutical companies, and perhaps Schrodinger's influence on the efficacy of domestic drugs.

Market demand in turn affects the choice of manufacturers.

Later, He Xiangjian did not start his business with glass bottles and plastic caps, and instead went to produce small parts for generators. He Xiangjian carried these gadgets on his back to find the market and cultivated an unusually sensitive market sense. Later, he started manufacturing fans and entered the home appliance industry.

Other medicinal glass manufacturers are turning to low borosilicate glass.

In the 1960s, in order to meet the packaging needs of domestic pharmaceutical products, China independently developed low-borosilicate pharmaceutical glass varieties and began large-scale production.

At present, Shandong Pharmaceutical Glass, the main domestic manufacturer of borosilicate glass bottles, said that the annual output of borosilicate glass bottles is 250-300 million.

However, according to data from the China Medical Packaging Association, the total annual consumption of injections in my country before the epidemic was as high as 62 billion.

In mature markets such as the United States and Europe, it has been mandated that all injection preparations and biological preparations use medium borosilicate glass packaging.

This industry has developed so far, its backwardness is not due to production capacity or production capacity. China is not unable to produce, but the entire industry and policy choices have led to the development of the industry in another direction.

Now, the facts are proving that this direction may no longer be appropriate.

This trend is becoming clearer.

In December 2017, National Food and Drug Administration issued the "Technical Requirements for the Consistency Evaluation of Listed Chemical Generic Drugs (Injections) (Draft for Comment)", which clearly mentioned that "Borosilicate is not recommended Glass and soda lime glass".

Although there is still no rigid requirement that the injection must use medium borosilicate glass, a hole has been opened in this area occupied by ordinary glass.

After all, the humble small industry, once it has the ability to get stuck, is already an important industry. There is no right to speak here, which is equivalent to only half of the road to self-reliance in the industry.

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