Glass maker Schott predicts enough vials to go around for COVID-19 vaccines (updated)
20/01/2021 16:36
(Adds CEO comments)
By Ludwig Burger
FRANKFURT, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Germany's unlisted Schott AG,
the world's biggest supplier of speciality glass for medical
bottles and syringes, said on Wednesday it did not see any
shortage of vials for bottling COVID-19 vaccines.
Drugmakers last year warned of limited supplies of vials to
bottle future COVID-19 vaccines, but Schott said at the time
that their rush to secure supplies early risked making matters
worse. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2DN0YT
Schott, whose founder Otto Schott invented heavy-duty
borosilicate glass in the 1890s, delivered 110 million vials for
COVID-19 vaccines during the second half of last year and was
now scheduled to clear an order backlog of 600 million vials for
that purpose well into 2022.
While this translates into "what looks like a gigantic"
number of roughly 6 billion vaccine doses to be filled, those
outstanding orders only amount to roughly one tenth of Schott's
annual total output of medical glass vials, Chief Executive
Frank Heinricht told Reuters.
The risk that vaccine developers in earlier stages might be
blocking vial capacities at the expense of suppliers that have
already won regulatory approval was now low, he added.
"Customers are ordering only to the extent that they
actually build up their own production capacities," said
Heinricht.
"We seek reassurance that orders are not placed to build
early reserves, so that all firms that really need (vials) for
filling can be served," he added.
Schott, with 2.2 billion euros ($2.7 billion) in annual
sales, competes in the market for borosilicate glass tubes with
Nippon Electric Glass 5214.T , Nipro 8086.T and Corning Inc
GLW.N .
It also makes the finished bottles, or vials, with peers in
a more fragmented market including France's SGD Pharma,
Germany's Gerresheimer GXIG.DE and Italy's Stevanato Group.
($1 = 0.8263 euros)
(Additional reporting by Patricia Weiss, editing by Thomas
Escritt and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
((ludwig.burger@thomsonreuters.com; +49 30 220133634; Reuters
Messaging: ludwig.burger.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))