By Maggie Fick
LONDON (Reuters) – German glassmaker Schott AG said on Wednesday it had signed contracts worth about $1 billion to provide glass cartridges and syringes to the top companies selling diabetes and weight-loss drugs from the GLP-1 drug class.
Schott’s CEO Andreas Reisse made the announcement during a news conference on the company’s launch of its initial public offering for its pharmaceutical bottles and vials unit Schott Pharma.
“We see GLP-1 drugs as one of the hottest topics in the Pharma industry,” he said.
“We can’t share our customers’ names, but, in fact, we have already signed long-term contracts with the leading players. And I’m delighted to share that these contracts add up to a volume of about 1 billion Euros ($1.07 billion) until 2030.”
A spokesperson for the company later told Reuters that the company is also providing other components such as packaging for the pen devices for the injectable GLP-1 drugs.
The most prominent drug from that class on the market is Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, shown to help patients reduce weight by around 15% when used alongside exercise and lifestyle changes. High market expectations and demand for the self-injection drug have boosted Novo’s share price and helped make the Danish drugmaker Europe’s most valuable listed company.
Wegovy launched in Britain, its fifth market, despite the company’s inability to make enough of the drug to meet demand. The drug is contained in a glass cartridge inside a pen device used for self-injection once weekly.
($1 = 0.9323 euros)
(Reporting by Maggie Fick; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
