Masks, Epidemic Guns, Vaccines: What’s Next in the COVID-19 Market?

Just as pharmaceutical companies in the United States, Europe, China and other regions are racing to develop vaccines around the world, and the new vaccine is about to be mass produced, there is a shortage of small glass bottles for vaccines.
Schott, one of the world’s largest medical glass producers, recently said it had received orders for 1 billion vials this year, double its annual production capacity.
In order to mass produce the covid vaccine, Johnson & Johnson alone purchased 250 million vials; a global NGO even purchased its own glass production line to ensure vaccine reserves.
According to the CEO of Tarant, a drug development solution and supplier of drugs, biological agents and health care products, the global covid vaccine R & D company has entered vaccine R & D, making medical glass vials in short supply.
According to foreign media reports, the shortage of medical bottles is mainly due to the limited reserve of special materials for production. In general, the glass used to hold the vials contains certain chemicals that are resistant to extreme temperature changes and keep the vaccine stable. It takes days or weeks to process special glass into glass vials. The raw materials need to be melted first, then shaped into slender tubes, and finally the small tubes become small glass tubes.
In the process of blowing, the hottest part is easy to escape sodium borate. After cooling, boron will coagulate irregularly at the bottom and neck of the inner wall of the glass bottle. If the vaccine liquid is added, boron may dissolve into the liquid. The inner part of the glass bottle will also be corroded, and the metal will be dissolved, forming a corrosion layer on the glass surface.
If the tablet is injected into the human body, it may cause adverse reactions, so special personnel are required to check the tablet in the bottle.
(drawing pipe process, source: official account of all things)
As a result, glass vials take a long time to make, but when demand suddenly increases, there will be a short-term imbalance between supply and demand – just like masks and upstream melt blown cloths at the beginning of the year.
List of a shares
At present, the mainstream injection packaging material in the world is borosilicate glass, with the use ratio of more than 70%. But in China, it’s less than 10%. Since 2017, the State Food and drug administration has recommended the use of borosilicate glass as the injection packaging material. In 2019, the drug regulatory bureau issued another document to stipulate that the packaging materials used for domestic generic drugs shall not be lower than the packaging materials standards of European and American countries.
This year, Chinese pharmaceutical companies are competing to develop covid vaccines, which is expected to speed up the replacement of borosilicate glass bottles in China.
At present, there are more than 1500 companies engaged in pharmaceutical glass bottle packaging in China. However, there are not many companies with corresponding businesses in A-share market, mainly Shandong Pharmaceutical glass and Zhengchuan shares.
(picture source: enterprise inspection)
Shandong Pharmaceutical glass is the leading manufacturer of medical glass in China, mainly engaged in the research, development, production and sales of various pharmaceutical glass packaging products, including six series of molded bottles, brown bottles, ampoule bottles, control bottles, butyl rubber plugs, aluminum plastic caps, etc. The market share of the company’s molding bottles is more than 80%, and it is also one of the two domestic manufacturers with approval documents for neutral borosilicate molding bottle packaging materials.
Shandong Pharmaceutical glass has a capacity of about 200 million borosilicate moulded bottles, and a capacity of 687 million borosilicate controlled series bottles. According to last year’s annual report, the company’s model bottle series contributed 52% of its revenue. The proportion of export revenue is 31.5%.
(source: tonghuashun)
In the first quarter of this year, the company recorded revenue of 761 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.98%; net profit of 136 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.63%. The decline of the company’s revenue / net profit growth was mainly affected by the epidemic.
(source: tonghuashun Ifind)
But in terms of share price performance, the company has maintained stable growth since 2018. From 2018 to now, the company’s share price has increased by 341%. Despite the possible shortage of vaccine glass bottles, the company’s growth space and fundamentals are also favored by the market.
As of the latest, the market value of the company is 28.7 billion yuan, with a rolling P / E ratio of 59x.
(source: tonghuashun Ifind)
Zhengchuan Co., Ltd. is also mainly engaged in the research, development, production and sales of pharmaceutical packaging materials such as pharmaceutical glass control bottles. Its main products include borosilicate glass control bottles of different types and specifications, sodium calcium glass control bottles, etc.
In the first quarter of this year, the company achieved a total operating revenue of 145 million yuan, down 13.32% year-on-year; its net profit was 18.99 million yuan, down 18.67% year-on-year. In 2019, the company’s revenue and net profit also recorded a significant decline.
(source: tonghuashun Ifind)
In addition to the above two companies, Qibin group also announced the investment and construction of neutral borosilicate medical glass project at the end of last year. The project is planned to be constructed in stages, with a total investment of about 600 million yuan. The first phase of the project is planned to last 12 months and is under preparation.
There is a mask concept in front of the car. At present, the “scarce” medical glass bottle label in the A-share market is expected to take off if it meets the air outlet.
Warning of melt blown cloth
There is no doubt that the mask industry chain is the first industry benefiting from the “covid market”.
However, after the whole industry entered the Bureau, there was overcapacity in the mask industry chain.
Recently, the head of the manufacturer of Guangdong mask factory revealed that the price of 95 grade meltblown cloth has dropped to 20000-30000 yuan per ton at present, while the price per ton in peak period once reached 700000 yuan. At the peak, the unit price per ton of materials once reached 700000 yuan. The related production equipment also decreased by the same extent, and the downstream demand for masks continued to shrink.
At the same time, Evonik technology, a listed company, has stopped orders for interface masks. Mask production, once seen as a “money printing business”, has finally faded out of sight.
In the stock market, the “mask concept stock”, which must have skyrocketed from February to March, has also experienced stock price correction in some stocks in the past month.
(source: tonghuashun Ifind)
Therefore, for the concept of medical glass, mask