European Pharmaceutical Manufacturer speaks to Carole Grassi, chief commercial marketing & innovation officer, SGD Pharma about what the company is showcasing at CPHI Frankfurt.
Shutterstock Sean Pavone
Frankfurt, Germany
1. What will you be showcasing at CPHI?
At CPHI 2025, SGD Pharma is presenting a full spectrum of innovations and an expanded product & service portfolio, underscoring our ambition to push the boundaries of pharmaceutical glass packaging. We will exhibit:
- Sealian, our internal barrier coating for moulded vials, improving chemical durability and reducing interactions, available in clear and amber forms across a wide volume range (3 mL to 500 mL).
- Idency, our hybrid vials combining the mechanical and chemical strength of moulded glass with external dimensions aligned with standard tubular fill & finish lines.
- Sterinity EZfill, our ready-to-use (RTU) moulded glass vials offering sterility, flexibility, and high standards of quality.
- Velocity Vials, Type I tubular glass vials with a low-friction external coating developed with Corning, designed to optimise fill & finish throughput (boosting efficiency by 2050 %) and reduce particulate generation by up to 96 %.
- Proseal+, a new external treatment for both molded and tubular vials that enhances moisture and oxygen protection, extending shelf life.
- Ensiemo, a pharma-grade system combining vials and pipettes, now with tamper-evident and child-resistant caps.
- Lab Services, our newly launched analytical service offers pharma / biopharma / CDMOs, covering testing, characterisation and support from early development to commercial stages.
By combining advanced product innovations with expanded lab services, we aim to present a complete value proposition: superior packaging performance, speed-to-market support, sustainability credentials, and stronger alignment with evolving customer needs.
2. What was the reasoning behind acquiring Alphial?
The acquisition of Alphial was driven by a clear strategic logic:
- Strengthening our position in tubular glass: Before Alphial, SGD Pharma had strong molded glass capabilities and a growing presence in Tubular Glass in India. And as per our Strategy, we want to expand our tubular converting presence in the rest of the world. Alphial brings that expertise.
- Geographic and production footprint expansion: Alphial’s four Italian manufacturing sites and local presence in Europe give us proximity to key markets, and key customers, reducing lead times and logistical complexity.
- Complementary product portfolio: Alphial’s strengths in ampoules, vials and RTU match and complement our existing lines. Their know-how in tubular converting, process capabilities, and market relationships are highly synergistic.
- Acceleration of RTU and advanced formats: The combined capabilities allow us to scale up RTU offerings and push innovation faster.
- Customer responsiveness & increased offering: The integration enables us to offer a broader, more flexible portfolio to customers from a single supplier, an important competitive advantage in the pharma glass space.
Alphial does not simply add volume, it elevates our technological breadth, responsiveness, and strategic flexibility in the glass pharma market.
3. Are you noticing particular product interest from biotech vs. traditional pharma customers?
Yes, and the trends are distinct and informative:
- Biotech / advanced therapy clients are particularly sensitive to material-drug interactions, barrier performance, extractables/ leachables, reduced risks of scratches on the glass surface and small lots / flexibility. They demand glass packaging that is ultra high quality level, with minimal adsorption and with coating or treatment options to preserve biologics.
- Traditional pharma players often prioritise quality, service, regulatory compliance, supply stability, cost and incremental improvements. They adopt innovations whenever these innovations bring value in terms of problem solving.
- We are seeing strong interest from biotech clients in RTU vials, coated or barrier-treated vials (such as Sealian) and high-integrity packaging solutions (like Idency and Velocity). They value the ability to shorten development timelines by working with a supplier who can support analytical, qualification and regulatory needs.
- From traditional pharma, we see steady demand in large-volume standard vials, but with increasing appetite for upgraded features when it comes to reducing breakages and line downtime, increasing shelf life to reduce total cost of ownership.
- Thus, our strategy is to serve both segments, but with tailored offerings: standard, scalable solutions for large-volume pharma; and high-performance, flexible, advanced solutions for biotech.
This dual approach helps us deepen relationships across the spectrum and capture growth from evolving trends in drug modalities.
4. What steps led to achieving Platinum status from EcoVadis?
Reaching Platinum status from EcoVadis represents a significant milestone, positioning SGD Pharma in the top 1 % of glass manufacturers globally.
The journey involved multiple deliberate actions:
- Strong governance, ethics & compliance framework: embedding anti-corruption, whistleblowing, supplier code of conduct, and rigorous oversight.
- Supply chain transformation: ensuring sustainable procurement, auditing suppliers, demanding compliance with ESG standards across tiers.
- Operational excellence in environment and energy: decarbonization programs, energy efficiency improvements, electrification, heat recovery, renewable energy sourcing.
- Scope 1 & 2 emissions targets: validated via the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), with a goal of 42 % reduction by 2030 vs 2022, and 65 % by 2040.
- Robust reporting, transparency, and double materiality: enhanced sustainability reporting, linking ESG risks to business decisions, stakeholder feedback loops.
- Employee & social practices: health & safety, training, rights, inclusion, living wage analysis, and high standards in labor and human rights.
- Continuous improvement culture: annual audit cycles, corrective plans, benchmarking, third-party validation, and consistent follow-through on gaps.
These steps reflect the strategic integration of sustainability rather than ad hoc initiatives, allowing us to build credibility, resilience, and leadership in ESG performance.
5. How are you balancing sustainability goals with the need for cost efficiency and supply security?
The Capex Roadmap towards our ambition is a heavy capex number indeed and end up in more than 100 projects across the group. For us, sustainability and efficiency go hand in hand and It is key that these are handled in a rigorous manner:
- Capex in efficiency-first solutions: investments in energy recovery, electrification, process optimization often reduce operating costs in the medium term.
- Phased implementation: we roll out sustainability upgrades in stages, prioritizing areas with strongest ROI or highest impact, thereby smoothing capital burden.
- Supply chain diversification: by expanding our footprint (e.g. via Alphial, JV in India) we reduce dependency on single sources, thus enhancing security while enabling local sourcing with sustainable practices.
- Green procurement leverage: by demanding ESG performance from suppliers, we drive scale and cost competitiveness in sustainable sourcing.
In addition: Our customers are more demanding and have also ambitious targets. It is key to collaborate with them and partner in a common goal to share results and costs.
Finally, Governance & trade-off decisions: we maintain rigorous governance to evaluate trade-offs, ensuring sustainability is integrated into decision criteria alongside cost and supply metrics.
In sum: we don’t view sustainability as a burden, but as a strategic enabler for resilience, differentiation, and long-term value, all while being fiscally responsible.
6. What advice would you give to companies who are looking to improve their status?
If you're aiming to elevate your sustainability performance or ESG standing, here are some hard-earned lessons and best practices:
- Start with governance and strategies, not just projects: set clear, measurable targets (e.g. science-based), embed ESG criteria in decision-making.
- Map your materiality and double materiality: understand the key impacts and risks along your value chain (upstream and downstream) to focus resources where they matter most.
- Pilot & scale: begin with high-impact, high-feasibility projects (energy, waste, supplier scorecards), learn, then expand.
- Engage your supply chain: your ESG risks often lie in suppliers. Integrate supplier assessments, capacity-building and incentives.
- Embed sustainability into operations: energy efficiency, process optimization, circular design, equipment upgrades, make it part of daily operations, not an afterthought.
- Transparency & external validation: use credible frameworks (EcoVadis, SBTi, CDP), publish data, be willing to be audited.
- Build internal culture & accountability: assign ESG ownership, train employees, open communication, empower bottom-up ideas. Add incentives linked to sustainability to the whole group. This is a Group Initiative at all levels.
- Be patient but relentless: meaningful progress takes time. But consistency, iteration, measurement and corrections drive compounding gains.
- Align with business goals: ensure ESG initiatives support revenue, risk mitigation, cost savings or differentiation, that’s how they become sustainable within the organization.
- Collaborate externally: engage in industry initiatives, share best practices, form consortia, collective action accelerates progress.
By following such principles, companies can shift from incremental improvement to transformational leadership in sustainability.