Operation Marketing & Communication Manager |
Alice ACHACHE
Media partner | The Scott Partnership
Yes. Our state-of-the-art manufacturing plant in Vemula near Hyderabad in India, completed in 2013, is registered to manufacture Type I glass compliant with Japan, European, India and US pharmacopeias. The best-in-class tubular vials and ampoules manufactured at Vemula are used in India for COVID-19 vaccine vial packaging. As well as its local and national supply of tubular vials, the Vemula site also has a major output of Type I molded glass for the Asian, EMEA and USA markets and is used as part of the global supply chain for many pharmaceutical companies.
We offer a broad range of sizes and finishes in Type I, II, or III, amber and clear glass, as well as innovative added-value services like internal siliconization or protective plastic coatings.
We build long-term relationships with our customers and are responsive, reliable, transparent and highly collaborative. Working closely with customers and researching the latest technologies, we seek specific challenges to address through the research or application of new technology solutions.
Our SQLM site in Normandy, France, has a new operations facility opened in 2013 and the Vemula state-of- the-art plant in India was completed in February 2018, with new furnaces, each with ISO 8 cleanrooms (1700m 2 and 2400 m 2 ) Together these plants offer 31,800m 2 and 11,000m 2 , yielding a production capacity of 1.5 million vials and ampoules daily from SQLM and 1 million vials a day from Vemula. This, together with our ex-stock capacity, allows us to meet the vaccine demand while still servicing our other customers.
During 2020, SGD Pharma continued its daily operations and even improved performance in all plants, strengthened clients’ trust and gained market shares, accelerated R&D capabilities, and recruited and improved training efforts. Our plants in Asia and Europe are all subject to the highest level of safety measures to ensure the health and safety of employees while continuing manufacturing operations.
To manufacture and ship vaccines globally requires highly managed logistics and access to continuous and secured supply of ancillary materials to ensure vaccine distribution does not face any bottlenecks. As a glass primary packaging company, we are working tirelessly to help guarantee this access for global COVID-19 immunization campaigns.
To help prepare this vaccine for worldwide distribution, SGD Pharma is offering access to our entire manufacturing output from our state-of-the-art ISO 15378 certified plant in Normandy, France, where our daily capacity stands at 400 to 500Ku of internationally recognized Type I neutral molded glass vials, available in many sizes including 10ml, 20ml, 30ml and 50ml.
Since 1896: we draw on more than 100 years of expertise inherited from Saint-Gobain, and are renowned worldwide as a technical leader in glass packaging.
We employ over 3,000 experts in R&D, Sales, Marketing, quality, regulatory, environment, health and safety, and operations. Our teams work together to solve tomorrow’s challenges today.
5 manufacturing plants across 4 countries (France, India, Germany, China). We combine control of the glass process with the implementation of GMPs for pharmaceutical primary packaging in all our manufacturing facilities.
Following the completion of our Vemula plant in 2013 and SQLM in 2016, we plan to continue investing in the latest technology for our facilities, and provide our customers with unwavering product quality. This is demonstrated through our upcoming 2021 product initiatives, which includes elevating our Type I molded glass product portfolio, to provide customers with solutions that meet their individual business and product needs. By making continuous improvements to glass composition, production processes and equipment, and quality criteria, SGD Pharma remains the leader in molded glass packaging.
We aim to improve and protect the health of patients by providing high quality, reliable and innovative primary glass packaging to our pharmaceutical customers.
Two plants are best-in-class facilities dedicated to Type I glass (Saint-Quentin-Lamotte (SQLM) in Northern France and Vemula in India). SQLM is a Center of Excellence for Type I molded glass. Type II glass for anesthetics is produced in Sucy-en-Brie, France and Kipfenberg, Germany. Type III amber glass for analgesics is produced in Sucy-en-Brie. All manufacturing facilities are ISO 15378 certified. Vemula, India is also ISO 14001 and 18001 accredited.
We produce over 8 million vials and bottles per day, across plants in Europe and Asia. More than 2 billion vials are manufactured and sold per year.
Between 2020 and 2025, we will rebuild all our 7 furnaces and upgrade them with new technologies (live monitoring systems, better thermal insulation, increased electric boosting). These improvements will eventually enable us to improve our overall energy efficiency by at least 7% by 2025.
In 2019, we commenced a major plant development project Sucy-en-Brie, France. This Capex, 31 million€ in total, is the biggest SGD Pharma investment since the Saint-Quentin- Lamotte plant construction. The Sucy-en-Brie factory, already ISO 15378 & 50001 certified facility with 8 production lines connected to ISO 8 clean rooms, will join a next generation of pharma glass packaging units.
The project includes the complete rebuilding and upgrading of the furnace 2, the modification of the building itself, the full revamping of the ISO 8 cleanrooms, new-generation IS machines and the installation of the most advanced technologies available for automatic product inspection. Thanks to live monitoring systems, better thermal insulation and increased electric boosting, CO 2 emissions will be reduced by 10%. The re-design of circulation areas will improve furthermore the safety of the plant.
Our Type I molded glass vials are resistant and chemically inert (thanks to their high hydrolytic resistance), making them a relevant solution to complete the Type I tubular glass vials offering and respond to this unprecedented surge in demand. They are ideal both to store and transport vaccines globally.
SGD Pharma is a global leader in glass pharmaceutical packaging, answering to the needs of a diverse range of markets including parenteral, nasal, and oral drugs, as well as beauty and nutrition.
SGD Pharma aims to reduce its CO 2 emissions by 5% per tons of goods produced. This equates to a saving of over 10,000 tons of CO 2 by 2025. We are planning to achieve this via:
Participation in FEVE Furnace of the Future Initiative:
We are one of 20 companies from the glass industry who have joined forces to create, fund and test a pilot furnace project. This will be the world’s first large-scale hybrid oxy-fuel furnace to run on 80% renewable electricity. This will replace current fossil-fuel energy sources and reduce CO 2 emissions by 50%.
- Investment in Environmental Performance:
To demonstrate our energy commitment, we had 3 plants ISO 14001 certified (environmental management) in 2019 (Kipfenberg, Zhanjiang and Vemula) and we plan to certify the remaining plants (Sucy-en-Brie et Saint-Quentin) by the end of 2021.
- Investment in Water consumption:
To reduce our water consumption, we installed closed-loop circuits at all our production sites.
In 2019, we reduced our overall water consumption by 18% in comparison to 2018. As a result, we saved more than 156 000 m3 of water which has mainly been achieved by the outstanding performance of our French plant at Sucy-en-Brie.
- Investment in glass re-use:
Close the Glass Loop is a European bottom-up, collaborative, public-private partnership that aims to increase the quantity and quality of available recycled glass. This initiative follows the European Green Deal framework, which recently changed the objectives for the recycling rate to accelerate the transition toward a more circular economy.
- Two key targets have been set:
SGD Pharma’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts have been recognized by EcoVadis, an independent evaluator which gave us a Platinum rating in 2020 – placing SGD Pharma in the top 1% of all companies evaluated. This rating demonstrates SGD Pharma’s commitment to sustainable business practice and our alignment with global action towards protecting the environment and tackling social issues. We also received a B score card from CDP, in recognition of our actions towards tackling climate change.
Type I borosilicate glass is used for packaging parenteral drugs. It is the ideal material due to its inertness and chemical stability, which limits interactions with the drug and protects its value as well as patient safety.
The customers of SGD Pharma include global pharma, biopharma, generics and vaccine manufacturers, as well as the cosmetics industry (particularly in China).
