Borosilicate glass, Schott (Mainz)

Sterile vials and syringes rest on Type I borosilicate glass, whose tubing is drawn by very few producers, Schott, Nipro, Nippon Electric Glass, Corning, that feed all the world's vial and syringe converters. Schott, in Mainz, exceeds 230,000 tonnes of capacity. The scarcity of upstream suppliers creates a discreet bottleneck: Corning's Valor Glass (aluminosilicate, backed by ≈$204m from BARDA) is trying to open an alternative.