As the celebrations for the International Year of Glass are currently under way in Geneva, Switzerland, Bormioli Pharma – international leader in the production of containers for pharmaceutical use – is announcing new research and innovation projects. Through a series of initiatives carried out with an Open Innovation approach, combining internal resources with research centres, universities and start-ups, the company aims at developing better performing and more sustainable glass products.
In particular, the collaboration with IMEM-CNR – within a new Research Centre dedicated to glass – is now under way to allow – through the funding of a three-years PhD scholarship -, the development of new external and internal coatings able to increase the performance of glass, both from a chemical and mechanical point of view.
Performance-wise, the company is also experimenting – again as a result of a specific collaboration with the CNR – with an innovative treatment to make Type II (soda-lime) glass bottles even more resistant, thus ensuring greater stability of the pharmaceutical formulations they will contain.
As for sustainability, Bormioli Pharma has recently joined Glass Futures, a UK-based project that aims to develop an innovative, low CO2 emission approach to glass production. The project, which will last ten years, will soon see the opening of a pilot furnace in the UK dedicated to the experimentation and application of these technologies.
“In a celebration year for glass, we are ready to confirm our role as innovators in the industry, with several concrete research and development initiatives,” said Andrea Lodetti, CEO of Bormioli Pharma. “This commitment is all the more important in a sector such as pharmaceuticals, where glass must not only contain, but also protect the therapeutic efficacy, and where the constant increase in production requires a serious rethinking of our responsibilities towards the environment.”
Sustainability is a key pillar for Bormioli Pharma, which has committed to manufacturing 50 percent of its products using materials with low environmental impact by 2025. The company will also publish its first Integrated Report based on ESG parameters by H1 2022.