Corning Incorporated, in partnership with SGD Pharma, has inaugurated a new plant in Vemula, Hyderabad, Telangana, to produce pharmaceutical tubing. The facility, developed through their joint venture SGD Corning Technologies, follows a groundbreaking held in 2023 and is expected to generate several hundred jobs in the region.
The joint venture will combine Corning’s tubing manufacturing expertise and Velocity Vials technology with SGD Pharma’s vial converting capabilities. The plant aims to strengthen the local supply chain and expand pharmaceutical packaging capacity.
Corning manufactures pharmaceutical glass tubing with a focus on precision-engineered Type I borosilicate tubing, which is recognised for its chemical durability, resistance to thermal shock, and suitability for injectable drug packaging. The company operates large-scale, ISO-certified facilities in the United States, Italy, China, and India, with processes covering raw material batching, controlled melting, tubing forming, inline gauging, and final packaging. Its 33 Expansion Borosilicate Glass Tubing complies with international pharmacopeia standards including EU, USP, JP, and YBB, and is widely used for its inertness and stability.
The company has also developed the Velocity Vials technology, which applies a proprietary low-friction coating to borosilicate glass vials. This reduces jamming, breakage, and cosmetic defects during high-speed filling operations, supporting improved reliability on pharmaceutical production lines. According to the company, the technology can increase filling efficiency by 20 to 50 percent and cut the generation of glass particulates by up to 96 percent. The vials retain about 90 percent of their strength after processing, with crack incidence reduced threefold compared to conventional glass vials. Produced to ISO dimensions, Velocity Vials are designed to integrate into existing filling and packaging processes without additional modification. This technology is now being applied at the new Telangana facility through the joint venture SGD Corning Technologies.
SGD Pharma manufactures both moulded and tubular glass vials for the pharmaceutical industry, with processes covering batching, melting, forming, annealing, inspection, and packaging. Vial production is carried out on automated forming machines, shaping glass gobs into preforms before creating the finished container. Inspection takes place in clean room conditions, ensuring dimensional accuracy, seal integrity, and the absence of surface defects. Annealing relieves internal stresses before further treatments are applied.
The company offers siliconisation, coating the inside of vials to improve chemical compatibility and performance with sensitive drug products. This process is conducted under ISO 8 clean room conditions and covers vials ranging in size from 3 mL to 500 mL in both clear and amber formats. Ready-to-use vials are also supplied, which are washed with water for injection, depyrogenated, sterilised, and packaged in nest and tub configurations for direct use in pharmaceutical filling operations.
Through its partnership with Corning, SGD Pharma incorporates advanced coating technologies such as Velocity Vials into its production lines. With capabilities spanning Type I borosilicate as well as soda-lime glass, and output reaching millions of vials daily, the company provides full batch traceability and compliance certification. Its vial production is designed to support the requirements of injectable drugs, biologics, and specialty therapeutics across global pharmaceutical markets.
