All India Glass Manufacturers Federation (AIGMF) is promoting the extensive use of glass as an eco-friendly packaging material for the pharma packaging sector. The key advantage of using glass is that it can be completely recycled. All its raw materials are indigenously procured.

Every bit of the glass piece can be re-cycled to manufacture new glass with much lower consumption of energy. Most of the raw materials are mined in rural and backward areas of the country providing employment to families below the poverty line.

According to All India Glass Manufacturers Federation, there is a trend towards shifting to glass because of the growing awareness on the environmental hazards with plastic bottles. Glass bottles and moulded vials have always been a preferred packaging medium for cough syrups, tonics, paediatric suspensions, dry powder and liquid injectables.

Glass industry in India is a matured industry with players like Hindusthan National Glass, Piramal Glass, AGI, Empire Industries and other manufacturers. For pharma industry, glass bottles and moulded vials have always been a preferred packaging medium for cough syrups, tonics, paediatric suspensions, dry powder and liquid injectables. Also, tubular vials and ampoules have been extensively used by pharmaceuticals for their product packaging.

Since the last three years the industry has witnessed significant conversion from glass to PET (Poly Ethylene Terephthalate) bottles. This conversion is mainly due to two factors: fragility of glass and weight of glass. Also it was cost effective for manufacturers as the PET bottles are available at lesser price compared to glass. Even though the pharma industry prefers glass as packaging medium, commercial reasons have forced the drug manufacturers to look at cheaper alternatives, Manohar Lal, secretary, All India Glass Manufacturers Federation (AIGMF) told Pharmabiz.

The key feature for pharma sector to opt for glass is stability of the product. This stability enables them a longer shelf-life of the product.

There are more than 15 large glass manufacturing companies in India, of which only about 5 companies focus on pharma sector. The drug manufacturing industry forms about 20 per cent of the total production for the glass industry.

The leading manufacturers for Pharma sector are Hindusthan National Glass, Piramal Glass, AGI, Empire Industries and Mohan Breweries and Distilleries Ltd.

India is a major exporter of Glass to almost all major countries of the world including USA, Europe, African and South-East Asian countries.

Indian companies currently export at 10 per cent of the total pharmaceutical production. With the technology and quality of Indian glass manufacturers, India has the potential of becoming a significant player in the international arena, stated Lal.

The major international players in the sector are Saint Gobain, Gerrish Heimmer, Bormioli Rocco, and Beatson to name a few.

India has the infrastructure which is on par with the global industry standards and can definitely become a contract manufacturer in this space to cater to global orders, stated the secretary AIGMF.

Glass packing has been loosing out to PET/Plastic in the recent trend, however we forecast companies shifting back to glass bottles as they are aware of the environmental hazards due to use of plastics. On the other hand glass is 100 per cent recyclable and environment friendly.

The key issues in this sector are quality of glass manufacturing as per international pharma standards for which companies like Hindusthan National Glass is making huge investments in infrastructure and technology. Environmental issues pertaining to plastic use is the key issue.