HYDERABAD: Indigenous vaccine vial manufacturers from India are dissatisfied as most of these vials are being imported from China. Around 50 per cent of the total vaccine vials come from China. AGI Glaspac, which produces around 8,000 tonnes of these glass vials in Telangana, accounts for 10 per cent of the total vials produced in India.
Rajesh Khosla, CEO of AGI Glaspac, told Express, “China can do anything unethically to retain their business. We should not depend on China. Rather, the government must put emphasis on indigenous production of such vials.”
The firm produces Type 3 vials, as opposed to Type 1 vials needed for the Covid vaccine. Despite the difference in the type of production, the concerns are uniform across the glass vial manufacturing industry.
Vials and syringes are the two most critical components for vaccination. Around 10,000 million vials come from China, as opposed to 2,238 million from India. Meanwhile, a senior health official said that the government will receive the vaccine with the vials and the syringes together to indicate that it does not deal directly with vial manufacturing companies.