in the international market, pharmaceutical glass can be divided into borosilicate glass (type i glass, divided into neutral borosilicate glass and high borosilicate glass) and soda lime glass (including type ii glass and type iii glass).

it is understood that in developed markets such as europe, the united states, and japan, large-scale pharmaceutical companies basically use neutral borosilicate glass and high borosilicate glass, while china consumes about 30-40 billion low borosilicate glass bottles each year. this kind of glass is low in boric oxide, relatively poor chemical stability and toughness, and it is easy to produce chemical reaction with the medicinal solution, it will bring pollution and affects the safety of medication.

in recent years, with the continuous development of china's pharmaceutical industry and the promotion of policies such as consistency evaluation, the industry urgently needs to use pharmaceutical glass with better chemical stability. however, due to the high threshold of neutral borosilicate glass tube, domestic demand for neutral borosilicate glass tube basically depends on imports, the production capacity is limited, and the demand exceeds supply. fortunately, as international glass tube companies such as schott and corning land production capacity in china, the domestic supply of glass tubes may ease in the future. in addition, with the active deployment of many domestic enterprises, it is expected to accelerate the realization of domestic substitution in the future.

neutral borosilicate glass market continues to grow.

in december 2017, the drug evaluation center of the state drug administration issued a notice on publicly soliciting opinions on the “technical requirements for consistency evaluation of listed chemical generic drugs (injections)”. according to the draft for comments, the packaging materials and containers used for injections that are in direct contact with medicines should meet the packaging material standards issued by the general administration, and the use of low borosilicate glass and soda lime glass is not recommended. this also means that china's pharmaceutical packaging has opened the way for the use of neutral borosilicate glass to replace ordinary soda-lime glass, and the replacement ratio will increase year by year.

according to the international reportlinker report, the global pharmaceutical glass market will reach 22.05 billion us dollars by 2025, and the growth rate of emerging markets in india and china will reach 9%. china will become one of the major consumers of pharmaceutical glass packaging bottles.

dr. patrick markschläger, executive vice president of schott glass tube business department, mentioned in an interview with zyzhan that china has a relatively large population base. in the application of borosilicate glass, china has become second only to or very close to the world's consumption. combined with the current chinese policy and the concept of a healthy china, medical packaging is constantly being upgraded, which will vigorously promote the upgrade of low borosilicate glass to neutral borosilicate glass.

according to the prediction of dr. patrick markschläger, 30% -40% of the 300,000 tons of pharmaceutical glass in china will be upgraded from low borosilicate glass to neutral borosilicate glass in the next 5-10 years. it is foreseeable that the domestic market for neutral borosilicate glass will continue to increase in the future.

domestic substitution or acceleration in the future

at present, most of the domestic glass market share in china is occupied by schott and other international giants. only a few manufacturers in china have the capacity to produce neutral borosilicate glass bottles. this is mainly due to industry entry barriers and high technical requirements.

first, glass tubes are the core raw materials for the production of tube-type bottles, and china's demand for neutral borosilicate glass tubes basically depends on imports, which makes the supply of core raw materials for neutral borosilicate glass limited. domestic enterprises can only produce low borosilicate glass tubes and unstable neutral borosilicate glass tube.

secondly, the glass tube forming process is complicated, and the technical requirements for neutral borosilicate glass tube process control are high. many companies have difficulty in controlling production stability.

third, the neutral borosilicate glass tube is different from the low borosilicate glass tube. its construction investment, production facility costs and subsequent maintenance costs are very high, which has made many domestic enterprises prohibitive.

fourth, with the advancement of drug-related reviews, packaging materials with stable product quality and good performance have gradually become the choice of pharmaceutical companies. however, due to the lack of capital and technical reserves and the lack of relevant policy support, domestic pharmaceutical glass manufacturers have great difficulty in transforming and upgrading.

the industry believes that although the industry's threshold is high, as the pharmaceutical packaging industry gradually standardized, the concentration of the pharmaceutical packaging industry will continue to increase, and small-scale and backward technology companies may gradually withdraw from the market, while leading companies in the industry are expected to be stronger and bigger.

the author noticed that at present, many investors are optimistic about the development of china's tube-type bottles market, and even plan to carry out integrated investment in the field of tube-type bottles. many companies have entered the field of pharmaceutical glass through acquisition and production of neutral medicinal glass business. in the future, it is expected to accelerate the domestic substitution and open a new market.

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