Staff members seal the vaccines into plastic packaging. Photo: Li Hao/GT

Chinese glass producers are working to provide much-needed vials for coronavirus vaccines, with a potential demand boom in China and abroad. Some companies' annual production capacity has expanded to tens of billions of units.

China's demand for at least 8 billion vaccine vials a year has created a supply shortage, media reported. News of the "shortage of vaccine vials" also sent the related share price in China's A-share market up by more than 20 percent in early December, Caixin reported.

Borosilicate glass comes in three categories: low-borate, neutral and high borosilicate. The main difference is the ability to resist temperature changes. In markets like the US and Europe, neutral borosilicate glass packaging has been made mandatory for all vaccines and biological agents. 

Limited capacity for the neutral variety led to the wide use of low borosilicate glass vials in China, open data showed. The use of the neutral variety in China is only about 10 percent, lower than in countries like the US, Germany and Japan. 

But the figure may have risen since the pandemic, and some leading domestic companies have expanded production.

Zhao Haibao, secretary of the board of Shandong Pharmaceutical Glass, told the Global Times on Tuesday that vaccine producers have made inquiries with vial suppliers but no orders have been placed yet.

Shandong Pharmaceutical Glass' annual vial production stands at 26 billion units, including 3 billion for low and neutral borosilicate glass.

Another source at the Shandong-based vial supplier told the Global Times that vials have designated as strategic materials as part of the COVID-19 vaccination effort.

A source with Chongqing Zhengchuan Pharmaceutical Packaging told the Global Times it has more than 800 manufacturing machines that can make 3 billion neutral and low borosilicate glass products, which is adequate to meet market demand. 

"We can adjust our capacity, such as by reducing the production of other items, to give priority to vaccine vials," the source said, noting that Sinopharm and Sinovac Biotech have made order inquiries and more orders are expected in the future.

A salesperson from a leading glass medicine package manufacturer in China told the Global Times on Tuesday that the company has long produced vaccine vials with low-borate borosilicate glass and neutral borosilicate glass, like most other domestic enterprises. It has also developed borosilicate glass for high-end consumers.

The salesperson also said that the COVID-19 vaccines will be used quickly after production, so the quality of the vials is not so crucial.

But the industry should continue to upgrade, said Tao Lina, a Shanghai-based vaccine expert.

"If China wants to be a global leader, it needs to live up to high standards," as it did with COVID-19 vaccine research, Tao told the Global Times on Tuesday.