The glassmaker from the Paris region, a specialist in pharmaceutical packaging, is commissioning its first line to integrate silicone into its bottles at its site in Saint-Quentin-Lamotte, in the Somme department.

Article published on March 13, 2024 at 13:01 in Les Echos and written by Juliette Poulain

The Saint-Quentin-Lamotte site is preparing to process between 30 and 40 million silicone bottles per year. (SGD PHARMA)

SGD Pharma has just commissioned its first silicone line at its pharmaceutical vial production site in Saint-Quentin-Lamotte, in the Somme region. This new line allows the glassmaker, a specialist in pharmaceutical packaging, to spray silicone inside medication bottles to limit interactions between the contents and the container. «The advantage of silicone is that it is hydrophobic. It prevents waste and ensures a good restitution rate. For example, a nurse must mix water with a powdered solution: without silicone, the powder sticks to the walls of the bottle. Poor dilution leads to losses and the patient does not receive the prescribed dose, explains Carole Grassi, sales director of the SGD Pharma group (410 million turnover in 2022 with some 3,000 employees), based in Hauts-de-Seine.


Two ovens
Until now, this process was entrusted to Verescence, a specialist in perfumery bottles and former subsidiary of Saint-Gobain Desjonquères such as SGD Pharma. From now on, the integration of silicone will be fully carried out at the Saint-Quentin-Lamotte site, which is thus preparing to process, starting in 2024, between 30 and 40 million silicone bottles of 5 ml to 300 ml per year. At the same time, the Picardy plant of SGD Pharma (270 employees), can produce up to a million pharmaceutical vials per day, thanks to two ovens. Made only from moulded type I glass, these vials are intended for parenteral and nasal use.

With the new line, the group integrates silicone in its on-site bottles and in type II glass bottles (a variant of I for acidic injectable solutions) or type III (less resistant, intended for powder injectables and non-injectables) produced at its four other sites in Sucy-en-Brie (Val-de-Marne), Germany, China and India. SGD Pharma also handles bottles sent by "major pharmaceutical groups", whose names and order amounts remain confidential.


Site Extension
According to its manager, the Saint-Quentin-Lamotte site is spared from the drop in orders for drawn glass bottles used for
vaccines. "After COVID, there was a storage-intensive effect. In Picardy, we only make moulded glass for different markets such as parenteral nutrition, painkillers, infusions or animal health," explains Carole Grassi. The growth of the SGD Pharma group varies between 4% and 5% per year. Last May, to prepare for the installation of the silicone line, the glassmaker unearthed an extension of 1,000 m2 in Saint-Quentin Lamotte, bringing the total area of the site to 12,000 m2. All inclusive, the investments amount to five million euros.

Four new employees are joining the 270 employees of the Picardy unit. The group’s second silicone line will be inaugurated at the glassmaker’s site in India this spring.


Juliette Poulain (Correspondent in Amiens)