India’s Piramal Glass is ready to double its capacity of pharmaceutical glass to help tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Indian glassmaker dismissed recent claims that there is not enough glass to make vials that will contain the vital vaccine.
Piramal Glass Vice Chairman, Vijay Shah, said: “News that there may be a shortage of vials is unfounded, because there is sufficient capacity in the industry to increase production if needed.”
The company currently makes 45t/day of borosilicate glass, which translates to about 1.2 million vials a day.
Piramal’s production of this glass can be doubled if given a month’s notice, Mr Shah said.
The company has four glass manufacturing plants: two in India and one each in Sri Lanka and USA. A well as pharmaceutical glass, it manufactures food and beverage and perfume and cosmetics glass.
It saw a 30% jump in sales of speciality vials used to bottle medicines in the June quarter, led by a surge in demand as more drugs are made to combat the pandemic.
The Indian glass manufacturer is projecting a 30% bump in revenue from Type 1 borosilicate glass vials in 2020-21.
The group is also manufacturing glass bottles for hand sanitiser (pictured).
A
