German technology group Schott and Japanese company Naigai Glass Industry Co., Ltd. have founded a joint venture for pharmaceutical packaging activities in Japan effective 1 October 2010. The new comp…
German technology group Schott and Japanese company Naigai Glass Industry Co., Ltd. have founded a joint venture for pharmaceutical packaging activities in Japan effective 1 October 2010. The new company – Schott Naigai K.K. – is based in Osaka, Japan, where Naigai has already been operating a production site for many years. The new joint venture will manufacture high-quality vials for the Japanese pharmaceutical industry mainly from Schott“s pharmaceutical tubing glass Fiolax. Schott is one of the world“s leading manufacturers of primary packaging for the pharmaceutical industry and Naigai is one of Japan“s leading companies in this field. The founding of this joint venture in Japan represents yet another important milestone in our global growth strategy for our core business of pharmaceutical packaging. With Naigai, we have found a strong partner who shares the same high commitment to quality that Schott has. This will allow us to significantly strengthen our market position inside the world“s second largest pharmaceutical market, explained Prof. Udo Ungeheuer, Chairman of the Board of Management of Schott AG. Schott and Naigai have already been working together successfully in a buyer-supplier relationship for many years. Schott has been supplying Naigai with pharmaceutical glass tubing which the company needs in order to make primary pharmaceutical packaging products. The customers of our new joint venture will benefit from Schott“s global set-up with multiple production sites and an integrated tubing production, in addition to the technological advancements resulting from its broad research and development base, notes Keisuke Muratsu, president of Naigai. Schott holds 80% of the shares in the joint venture and Naigai owns 20%. Naigai will be shifting its existing vial manufacturing activities over to this company and Schott will be contributing its highly advanced automatic inspection system, which is even more reliable than human eye inspection. Over the next few years, Schott Naigai plans to expand its capacities by adding new production lines and leveraging technological know-how from Schott. As a result of this collaboration, customers will benefit from the high quality and technology standards, as well as supply safety along the entire supply chain, says Dr. Juergen Sackhoff, executive vice president at Schott Pharmaceutical Systems. Schott has maintained a presence in Japan since 1966 and currently has three production locations and a sales office there.