Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that the development of vaccines is facing a bottleneck: the shortage of glass vials for storage and special glass materials will hinder large-scale production. So, what technical content does this small glass bottle have?

As a packaging material that comes into direct contact with drugs, medicinal glass bottles are widely used in the field of drug packaging materials due to their stable performance advantages, such as penicillin bottles, ampoules, infusion glass bottles, etc.

Due to the direct contact of medicinal glass bottles with drugs and the need for prolonged storage, the compatibility between medicinal glass bottles and drugs is directly related to the quality of the drugs, involving human health and safety.

Due to negligence in the manufacturing process and testing of glass bottles, some problems have emerged in the field of pharmaceutical packaging in recent years. For example:

Poor acid and alkali resistance: Compared with other packaging materials, glass has relatively weak acid and especially alkali resistance. Once the quality of the glass is compromised or suitable materials are not selected, it is easy to endanger the quality of drugs and even the health of patients.

The impact of different production processes on the quality of glass products varies: glass packaging containers are usually produced using molding and control processes. Different production processes have a significant impact on the quality of glass, especially on the tolerance of the inner surface. Therefore, strengthening the performance testing control and standards of glass bottle packaging materials has a crucial impact on the quality of drug packaging and industry development.

The main components of glass bottles

Pharmaceutical packaging glass bottles usually contain components such as silicon dioxide, boron trioxide, aluminum trioxide, sodium oxide, magnesium oxide, potassium oxide, calcium oxide, etc.

What problems may occur with glass bottles

·The precipitation of alkali metals (K, Na) in glass leads to an increase in pH value in the pharmaceutical industry
·Low quality glass or prolonged exposure to alkaline drugs may cause detachment: detachment of glass may block blood vessels and pose a risk of thrombosis or pulmonary granulomas
·The precipitation of harmful elements in glass: Harmful elements may exist in glass production formulas
·Aluminum ions precipitated in glass have adverse effects on biological agents

Scanning electron microscopy is mainly used to observe the erosion and detachment of the inner surface of glass bottles, and can also analyze the filtered substances of medicinal liquids. We observed the surface of the glass bottle using a Feiner desktop scanning electron microscope, as shown in Figure 1. The left image shows the inner surface of the glass bottle eroded by the drug solution, and the right image shows the inner surface of the glass bottle eroded for a longer period of time. We can see that due to the reaction between the drug solution and the glass bottle, the smooth inner surface is eroded, and prolonged erosion can lead to large-scale detachment. Once injected into the patient's body after these reactions, the medication will have adverse effects on the patient's health.

Figure 1 Corrosion on the inner surface of the glass bottle