T’gana has potential to emerge as largest site globally for vials, tubing, says Corning

Hyderabad: Telangana may have lost out on Corning’s smartphone cover glass manufacturing facility to Tamil Nadu, but the US giant is bullish on the state as far as its pharma packaging business goes.
Corning’s upcoming Velocity vials and pharma glass tubing manufacturing facilities on Hyderabad’s outskirts at an initial investment of US$ 60 million (approx.500 crore) have the potential to emerge as its single largest site for vials and tubing globally, Gina He, business director, Corning Pharmaceutical Packaging told TOI.
“This is also the only site for us to be producing both glass tubing and vials. The real benefit is the colocation of tubing and converting into vials that does not exist in other locations,” she said during a recent visit to review the upcoming facilities under a joint venture — SGD Corning Technologies Pvt Ltd — at Vemula in Mahbubnagar.
Corning invested $500 million globally in expanding pharma packaging capacities in 2020 and 2021 in its largest expansion for lifesciences industry driven by the big boost in Covid-19 vaccine demand, shipping about eight billion doses globally.
While the Velocity plant has just commenced production, commercial production will begin in Q2 this year and the tubing plant will begin production in H1 of 2025, she said, adding the plant will make small and big vials based on demand.
Though initially vials made at the plant will cater primarily to domestic markets, in future it can also cater to developed markets like Europe and North America due to the significant improvement in quality levels, she said, adding the borosilicate vials with an external low-friction polymer-based coating have boosted fill and finish efficiency by 20-50%, bringing down costs.
This will be Corning’s fourth tubing unit after US, Italy and China and third for Velocity vials after US and Germany.