US-headquartered Corning Incorporated and French firm SGD Pharma have announced a joint venture that includes the opening of a new glass tubing facility to expand pharmaceutical manufacturing in India and allows SGD Pharma to adopt Corning’s Velocity Vial technology platform.

Combining SGD Pharma’s vial-converting expertise with Corning’s proprietary glass-coating technology, the collaboration will enhance vial quality, improve filling-line productivity, and speed the global delivery of injectable treatments.

SGD Pharma and Corning have broken ground on a new pharmaceutical glass tubing facility in Telangana. Together, the two companies will help drugmakers respond to increasingly complex capacity and quality issues while meeting global demand for critical medicines.  SGD Pharma joins a growing network of leading primary-packaging manufacturers adopting Corning’s cutting-edge coating technology. The joint venture expands Velocity Vials’ manufacturing footprint, localises its supply chains in India, and enables easier adoption of the technology by customers.

Manufacturing of Velocity Vials at SGD Pharma’s facility in Vemula, India, is expected to begin in 2024. Pharmaceutical tubing production is expected to begin in 2025.

Image caption- L-R- Sudhir Pillai, Managing Director, Corning India; Ron Verkleeren, senior vice president and general manager, Corning’s Life Sciences, and Olivier Rousseau, CEO, SGD Pharma at the ground-breaking ceremony of SGD Corning Technologies in Mahabubnagar, Telangana.